


Sweet Disposition

by dahdeemohn



Series: Sweet Disposition [1]
Category: World Wrestling Entertainment
Genre: Anxiety Disorder, Bromance, Bromance to Romance, Crushes, Demisexuality, Ensemble Cast, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, M/M, Slice of Life, Slow Build, Wrestling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-08
Updated: 2016-04-03
Packaged: 2018-05-25 11:29:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 44,718
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6193366
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dahdeemohn/pseuds/dahdeemohn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sami Zayn's initial concern when he signed with WWE was that he ran the risk of never having the opportunity to wrestle against colleagues from other promotions ever again. As NXT's success skyrockets, that concern is replaced with another when Finn Bálor signs on with the developmental roster and presents a whole other set of complications that Sami never anticipated on dealing with in his career.</p><p>tl;dr two dudes slowly fall in love and maybe eventually make out</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

By signing with the WWE, Sami Zayn was well aware that he ran the risk of possibly never having the opportunity to wrestle against former colleagues from other promotions ever again; such a predicament seemed silly when faced with the concept of stability and financial gain all in the name of the craft that he was married to. However, there was something akin to a bucket list that every wrestler had, of opponents that they’d love to lock up against some day, and Sami’s happened to be a huge factor in his career path, and he knew full well that he’d never be able to test his skills against the likes of John Cena if he remained where he was (few were willing to admit out loud that Cena was on their list). Prior to reaching a final decision, he consulted long-time friend and industry rival Kevin Steen, who immediately upon being told about these concerns erupted into a volcano of expletives, insults, and rhetorical questions about Sami’s mental state. 

It was the push that Zayn needed to make his decision.

  


* * *

  


A career within a WWE brand was as alien as much as it was an improvement, and it took several weeks for Sami to adjust to this new lifestyle. He was still in disbelief when he was told that he would receive full relocation assistance, even after he had moved into his new apartment at no cost to him, and he was elated to begin training and working out in a state-of-the-art facility, something that he previously could only dream of. It was borderline surreal to interact with and take suggestions from the likes of Triple H, William Regal, Robbie Brookside, and countless others that he watched from afar for so long with admiration and a hint of envy; it was a blessing to work now regularly alongside people that he met throughout his time in the circuit, and it was impossible to ignore the sense of awe and admiration in meeting talented people that, while still new and unknown, he knew would be successful and have a tremendous impact on the industry one day.

On more than one occasion he found himself fending off minor anxiety attacks that struck late at night, usually when he would reflect on just how good he had it at that moment, only to immediately convince himself that he had was clearly way too good of a deal and that everyone secretly hated him and that his paycheck wouldn’t clear, despite constant praise from his coaches and peers. 

Not to mention that he had signed a legally binding contract that in no way contained a clause where he could get fired if everyone hated him. 

And also that he had received paychecks on a weekly basis that always cleared. 

When Kevin checked in via text message, Sami made the mistake of unleashing walls of text conveying every one of these unfounded concerns to him, something that until that point he had kept to himself. True to Kevin Steen fashion, the response cushioned no blows.  
  


> _Those are fair concerns. I’d be worried too if I sucked as much as you do_

It did nothing to ease Sami’s distress. Several minutes and what felt like the initial stages of cardiac arrest later, a follow up text message from Kevin was received.  


> _god you’re such a dumbass. You might be the dumbest person that I know_

  


* * *

  


Things moved quickly, faster than Sami or anyone else could have possibly imagined, and after the success of the newly produced episodes of NXT debuted, the demand for newer talent surged. There were jokes in the locker room about agents from the WWE going undercover, staking out at and raiding Ring of Honor events, which turned into full-blown rumors when a particular name or two would be heard whispered by the higher-ups; some of these names were remarkable yet plausible, while others were simply unbelievable and seemed like a myth. There was no way that Samoa Joe would ever join the WWE, there was no way that anyone would actively go so far as to reach out to New Japan Pro Wrestling, there was just no way that things could get so good. 

“But,” would come the argument, “If we ended up getting guys like Bryan Danielson, Tyler Black, and El Generico, why wouldn’t we be able to get these other guys?” Sami always felt the most intense sense of pride and disbelief when someone would hold his previous name to the highest possible standard; he felt fortunate enough to not only work with these esteemed individuals, but to BE one of them. As that argument grew louder and stronger and the list of possible names that would join the NXT expanded, it was difficult to not get caught up in some of the excitement. When KENTA had shown up to the Performance Center for a tryout, Sami did a double take as he encountered him, unaware that such a thing was scheduled to happen (a necessity in a day and age where information travels fast and anything could end up on the internet without careful management). It took every fiber in his being to not blow up Triple H’s phone with hundreds of inquires. He approached William Regal at one point, poorly feigning aloofness in his attempt to get more information what this meant for future talent, and Regal responded with a knowing look in his eyes that saw right through Sami’s poorly contained excitement, and a parental "we'll see.” 

Some of the potential candidates fell into two distinct compartments of Sami's unbridled optimism: the first were the names of people that he had previously worked with and would be ecstatic to have as a regular co-worker, and the second were the names of the people that he had kept on his bucket list, his dream matches, which he had up until recently all but entirely given up on. The second list gave him butterflies, and with the recent success and demands, he forced himself to take the time so that he could catch up with other promotions that he had missed over the past year due the demands of a WWE schedule.

  


* * *

  


A week had gone by since inquiring about KENTA’s possible acquisition, and not a single person was able to offer up any further insight. While he refused to pester anyone with more questions, it was obvious that he had grown increasingly restless, most of which chalked up to the upcoming rematch with Cesaro. Although he had always been an overachiever, arriving to the gym prior everyone and leaving after everyone else, he unwittingly had been staying far past normal working hours in some effort to stim and prepare. On one particular evening, Sami found himself in the company of Jason Albert. For a long stretch of time, the only sounds that heard was terrible radio rock, the clank of weights, and occasional grunts.

“You need a break,” Jason’s deep voice rumbled from behind Sami as he wound down his reps with a pair dumbbells; it wasn’t a suggestion, it was an order. Instinctively, Sami went to protest, but bit his words back and was grateful for the clean towel and water bottle that was handed to him by the larger man.

“Yeah, alright. Thank you,” Sami exhaled and wiped down the back of his neck and forehead, then twisted open the cap of the bottle. Jason folded his arms across his chest as he studied Sami’s face, and Sami wondered how obvious the dark circles were under his eyes.

“Hey, what’s going on with you, man? Lately you’re here literally all hours of the day and night, like almost every day. I know that this is supposed to be a lifestyle, but this,” Jason gestured at all of Sami, “what you’re doing isn’t healthy. You gotta know that.” 

“I know, I know,” Sami responded, and stifled a yawn, which caused Jason raised an eyebrow at him. “I just...there’s so much going on right now, y’know? There’s so much, and I want to be ready for whatever comes through that door, comes into the ring. _My_ ring."

"You're probably plenty ready," Jason snorted, and Sami grimaced.

"Well," Sami continued, his voice elevating. "I want to start being the reason that we’re able to get the best that’s out there. I want to be the one that they watch, and go ‘holy shit, I gotta get in on that’. So I keep pushing myself. I can’t sleep, ‘cause I keep thinking about this. We’re onto something huge, I know it.”

“I get it,” Jason unfolded his arms, his expression softening and tone sympathetic. As Sami finally took a drink from the water bottle instead of just fiddling with the cap, Jason asked, “Have you considered asking Steen to try out?” 

Sami looked up at Jason wide-eyed and swallowed hard. “N-no,” he stammered, but then looked thoughtful. “Could you imagine, though? That’d be great. Y’know, he’s got a daughter on the way, and she’s due like...soon. He’d have something that pays WAY better for his family. A better opportunity...”

“Why not ask, then?” Sami shrugged as a response to Jason’s question. He wondered if this is something that the higher-ups have been discussing for a while, if Kevin was bound to become one of those legendary rumors that spread like wildfire in the locker room. Was this one of their methods of gaining new talent? Get one guy from the indies to sign on to get all of their buddies to come along as well. It was a brilliant strategy, if that was the case. 

“Maybe I will.” Sami beamed, looking much more energized than he did just a few minutes prior. A sense of confidence also nestled into nicely into his chest, since if his new working theory was correct, it may mean that somewhere in the chain of command someone had faith in him that he could assist in making their brand better. Finally opting to be bold, he finally asked the question that’s been bugging him non-stop. “Jason, do you know what’s going on with KENTA? Is he signing on with us?”

“Sorry kid, I actually don’t have much about that one. I know that he’s interested, I know that we’re interested, but I think that there might be some legal stuff that’s tying the whole process up. It’d also be a huge move for his family, if he went for it. But he did well at his tryout, and it’d be a huge opportunity for us to open up the door for other guys over in Japan, which we could use.” It was Jason’s turn to look thoughtful, something that Sami caught. 

“You uh...you got anyone else in mind? I mean, do you know anyone that might be coming over? Or uh, that’d be interested?” Sami tried to play it cool, but was aware of his compulsive use of _uh_. 

“Yeah, actually,” Jason nodded. “I do. I’ve met a lot of good folks and made a lot of friends when I worked over there, people that need a new challenge in their career. You know Devitt, right?” 

“Of course. Devitt’s good. Great. His whole body paint thing that he’s been does is crazy awesome, too. I’ve never had the chance to wrestle him, though. I really want to.” 

“He’s a good kid. Love him to death. You’d probably get along with him really well, and he’s had really good things to say about your career about how you’ve missed each other on the scene.” Jason smirked as Sami felt his mouth open a little bit, but words failed to came out; it was as though his brain short circuited over a simple compliment. He continued, “Anyway, Regal’s been trying to get him over here for a few years now, and he's been talking to me about it and asking for my opinion. Sounds like he’s looking for the next thing in his career. Of course, like you said, he’s great. If he were to come over, I don’t even know if he’d really be in NXT for too long, if at all. But he’s a very real possibility." Jason paused, as thought he was done, but then shook his head and added, "Don’t tell anyone, though, OK?”

“I won’t, I won’t. Don’t worry, I won’t, it’s between us.” Sami’s heart pounded, and he cut himself off before he stammered any further. He could feel his head getting lighter, but was grounded by the large hand that Jason placed on his shoulder. 

“Thanks, I really appreciate that. Look, Sami, go home. Get some sleep. Maybe you should take the day off tomorrow and, I dunno, take it easy for a change? Think about it. I’ll talk to Hunter if you want, but you need it.” 

“Alright, I’ll think about it.” Sami responded as he stood up, receiving a quick side-hug from Jason. The water bottle was polished off and deposited into a recycling bin, the towel dropped into a nearby hamper, and he retrieved his gym bag from the locker room. Once outside, he savored the cool breeze rushed over his flushed skin and damp hair. Fatigue began to settle into his muscles, he was glad that he drove over to the Performance Centre instead of biking or walking.

The drive home was short, but at the pace at which Sami's thought process surged made it seem like it took only seconds from when he unlocked his car in the parking lot to when he unlocked the front door of his apartment. For a few moments, he stood in the kitchen and debated with himself if he wanted to be the very epitome of filth and postpone a shower; however, it dawned on him that he would not only have to deal load of laundry for his clothing tomorrow, but would also absolutely have to do a second load for his blankets and bedsheets if he dared to be so vile, and suddenly he found the strength to make his way into the bathroom. Thankfully the previous tenants had left behind a massaging showerhead, and Sasha had recently given him a heavenly salt body scrub as a gift from one of those fancy organic cosmetics stores; between liberal use of both items, all tension felt as though it had melted away

Refreshed from the shower, Sami stepped out and toweled off, but couldn't be bothered to put anything on prior to crawling into bed. His brain still buzzed from the new information that Jason had provided, and he debated between calling Kevin right then and there or watching every single Prince Devitt match that he could download onto his laptop, but after a glance at the clock, he opted to set his phone’s alarm instead and attempt sleep.

  


* * *

  


The next morning Sami felt like he had gotten run over by a truck. He was tempted to hit the snooze button on his alarm as it went off, but a text message from Hunter caught his attention.  


> _Take the day off. We need you at your peak._

To which Sami responded,

> _Will do!_

Either Jason had spoken to Hunter, or it was really **that** obvious to everyone else that he'd had gone way too hard. While it was frustrating to miss a day of work ironically due to hard work, he knew that he wouldn’t be able to accomplish much in his current state. In lieu of of griping, a pair of sweatpants and a rubber mat were retrieved, and a few yoga videos on Youtube were queued up that could be followed along with minimal effort. The stretches felt wonderful, but several pops and creaks had him minorly concerned. How long had basic joint care been neglected?

Yoga hadn't exactly alleviated the soreness, so Sami reluctantly took the advice offered and weighed options of what he could do to rest for the day while simultaneously being at least marginally productive. Still fixated with the prospect of Devitt maybe just MAYBE coming to NXT, he occupied himself by looking up his career defining matches and streaming websites that they could be watched on, some of which he just knew would give his laptop all sorts of malware and viruses. As he waited for the first video to buffer, he grabbed his phone, pulled up Kevin’s number, and stared at it for a moment, wondering if what he was about to do would earn him more mockery than usual. 

> _Hey Kev, sorry to bother you, I know you have a lot going on right now. I was wondering if you’ve ever thought about maybe coming to do a tryout here? I could probably get you in to meet with some people. I think it’d be good for you._

The Send button was hit with held breath, unsure what sort of can he'd maybe opened up for himself. Minutes went by and there was not an indication that his text has been read, only that it’s been delivered. He checked the to see if the first video had finished loading, which it had, and clicked the play button on it.

Sami marathoned the matches and hadn’t stopped to take a break in hours. He knew that he wanted to fight Devitt at some point in his career, but his focus shifted from ‘what if’ to ‘what do we have to do to get him over here?’. More questions arose, about things like body paint and moral characteristics and things that he'd like to ask in person if he ever had the opportunity. The screen was finally paused so that snacks could be obtained, but Sami couldn’t help but stare at the still image of an airborne Prince Devitt.

“How the hell can a human being actually look like that? Is his ass made outta marble?!” He realized he was shouting in an empty room about another man’s finer anatomical points, and he immediately laughed at upon realizing how ridiculous he must look. Instead of snacking on chips, which was the original plan, Sami thought about Devitt’s unrealistic abs and shamed himself into settling for a medley of vegetables instead.

Before the video resumed, a quick phone check revealed a text message from Kevin; Sami had been too engrossed in watching the matches to have noticed when he received it. He unlocked his screen and glanced at its contents.

> _How do you know what'd be good for me?  
>  We'll see. I'll let you know._

Sami snorted. He'd talk to Regal about it later. In the meanwhile, a few fingers hovered over the spacebar to resume watching the match, but not before taking a moment to really absorb the grace and physique. The video was paused right as Devitt was delivering a diving double foot stomp to his opponent, and Sami admired the intensity in his body language. This was a man that truly loved his craft. This was the man that Sami needed to battle. And from what Sami had gathered, that man wanted to battle him. His head went light again, and he decided to avoid thinking about Jason’s comment from earlier.

After a few more matches, curiosity caused Sami to deviate to other media. Press conferences and interviews were easy enough to find, and Sami was curious to see if he could figure out what kind of person this was, or if he was just **that** good at playing the role of a total asshole. It was tough to come to any sort of conclusion, and Sami found himself no closer to understanding the personality of the opponent that he may have the opportunity to fight one day. The man could wear a suit well, though; between that and the impeccable chiseled appearance, Sami felt mildly inadequate for the first time in his life, while also being completely aware that it was silly of him to feel that way.

"Maybe I should take a break," Sami thought out loud as the heat of the laptop start to noticeably elevate, so it was powered down and he stood up to stretch. The long shadows cast across his living room indicated that the sun would be setting soon, and it was baffling how easily time got away.

As plans were considered on what to do with the remainder of the day, so much of it already wasted on indulging in sloth, the overflowing laundry basket came into peripheral vision. It that had been purposefully moved into the living room a few days ago to serve as a reminder that clean clothing was running low, and right then the original plan for the day was recalled. Sami let out an exasperated sigh. “Dammit.”

  


* * *

  


Over the course of the next few weeks, Sami toned down his previous schedule’s intensity, but eagerly seized every opportunity take on extra tasks or assist others, which became his choice method of burning off excess energy and anxiety. It paid off when he had an impromptu meeting with Triple H and William Regal about reaching out to Kevin, which went favorably in his humble opinion. As a few other wrestlers from the indies began to trickle in, he was the first among his peers to welcome them and was overjoyed to be able to share the ring with them. He refused to let any shards of disappointment kill his good vibes, and was optimistic that one day in the near future that Kevin or someone on his bucket list would walk through the doors of the Performance Center. And then, on a warm winter day in Orlando, Florida, it happened. 

And for as prepared as Sami thought that he was for that moment, he wasn’t.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 'A profile that he recognized after countless hours of watching it was among the group. Here, in Orlando, Florida, on a sunny morning just like any other.'

The training room portion of the Performance Center was blocked off for try-outs, so the roster spent their time in the strength and conditioning area on the first day that the candidates were there, and then for the following two days were to be spent preparing for NXT's first live event. As per usual, Sami had arrived earlier than the majority of his co-workers, and after stretching and firing up a carefully crafted workout playlist, he staked claim to a treadmill to warm up for the morning. About 45 minutes into the run fellow co-workers began filing in, and after roughly an hour he noticed Robbie Brookside flanked by a large group of people throughout the gym area; some of the men included were enormous, certifiable giants that towered over the group, the kind that the main roster looked out for and Sami wondered if they had stamina to go along with their imposing figures. He slowed down his pace to scan the crowd better, always hopeful that Kevin would be among any of the groups that came through. William had made it clear that Kevin would still have to tryout just like everyone else, and Sami wasn’t even sure if he’d get any beforehand info on when or if he’d show up. So far, no Kevin. It wasn’t surprising.

Now at a brisk walk to cool down, he surveyed the crowd once more out of curiosity. As the group made their way into the training area, Sami’s pulse froze for a second. A profile that he recognized after countless hours of watching it was among everyone. On a sunny morning just like any other, in Orlando, Florida.

Prince Devitt. In the flesh.

Sami couldn’t believe how different he looked in casual gym wear; up until now, his only exposure to Devitt involved Armani suits and wrestling trunks, and was taken aback that he looked so...normal? There had to be a better word to describe it, but from first glance it was impossible to guess that there was a row of rippling abdominal muscles underneath an unassuming grey t-shirt. From anyone’s perspective right now, this was just a lean young man, not an unrealistic standard for male physique, and suddenly shame overcame Sami for even having that knowledge offhand.

From the other side of the gym, Becky Lynch came into Sami's periphrial vision, eagerly jumping and waving, and Devitt met her greeting with equal enthusiasm. Moments later, the group disappeared into the training room, and the doors were shut behind them. Sami had come to a full stop and started sanitizing the handlebars and electronic menu of the treadmill, then paused the music as Becky and Charlotte wandered towards his general direction, Becky more animated than her usual self as she spoke.

“Hey Becks, you uh, know him or something?” Sami playfully teased Becky once she was within earshot, and she beamed at him.

“Oh yeah, Ferg and I go WAY back. He’s the one that originally trained me! I’ve been lookin’ out for him, since he told me a while back that he might be comin’ in sometime soon,” Becky spoke so quickly that she was close to rambling, the lilt her in accent heavy, and Sami did his best to follow along. “Sami, he’s so _SO_ good. Oh my gosh, I hope he signs on with us. He’d kill it, absolutely kill it!”

“I hope so, too. I’ve seen his stuff before, and we could definitely use his talent around here!” Sami hoped that he didn’t come across as too eager, or at the very least that it was drowned out by Becky’s own delight; then again, when was Sami not outwardly eager about every minor thing? Relief washed over him when Becky and Charlotte continued on, anxious that had the conversation gone on any longer he would have brought up how much media he had consumed of her friend over the past few weeks. While it wasn’t uncommon for wrestlers to watch matches to study their opponents, it may be difficult to explain that he watched so many of Devitt’s matches to prepare for a completely hypothetical one in the future. Was that really so weird?

For several hours, Sami managed to mostly keep to himself; if he kept quiet, a Herculanean feat, he maybe, just _maybe_ , wouldn't embarrass himself. When Becky or Jason would appear, Sami intentionally kicked up the intensity of his routine to avoid conversation. And possibly give the illusion of being more impressive than he felt in the event that somebody watched him. And not seem like a total dork. The rate that he went at was not destined for longevity, and eventually he had to stop altogether. The barbell that he'd been working with was ungraciously down, his breath ragged, knees wobbly, and face completely red; he knew that he’d later have regrets about adding that extra 25lbs onto the bar, and crouched down on the rubber gym mat to try to regain balamce. Much to his dismay, Jason had resurfaced yet again, and worse yet was that he began to make his way to an exhausted and now very obviously no-longer preoccupied Sami Zayn.

“Zayn!” Jason called out, hand outstretched to help Sami out, which he instinctively grabbed on and used the leverage to lift himself up, but almost fell backwards. Worry was evident on the larger man’s face. “Whoa kid, you alright?”

“Yeah,” Sami huffed out as he struggled to normalize his breathing. “‘M fine, just gotta...take a break.”

Jason started to give Sami the same lecture that he gave several weeks ago, and Sami nodded along. The concern from his older friend was very much appreciated, and he'd much rather hear it from him than, god forbid, Bill DeMott.

“Thanks. I’m sorry, I got carried away again.” Sami rubbed the back of his neck, genuine with his apology, and Jason heavily exhaled in return, both clearly empathetic towards where the other was coming from. Still, it looked like Jason had more to say, and Sami quickly schemed for a way to avoid any further conversation, moving his hand from the back of his neck to his temple and rubbed at it. Bingo. “Y’know, I’ve kind of have a bit of a headache going on for a little while. I was hoping that I could get rid of it by getting the blood flowing, but it hasn’t gotten any better. I might take off early..." Jason's eyebrows knit as Sami trailed off. "I mean, if you think that’d be OK.”

“Yeah man, it’s cool, get going. You’ve been busting your ass non-stop, we can all see that. I’m just worried that you’re going to make a habit of flirting with disaster.” It was a fair argument, since Sami's entire career was based on that exact standard operateing proceedure, but the concern was nice. Too often coaches and promoters held little regard for their talent, but Jason made it clear that health and safety were paramount within NXT, at least under his supervision. Threads of guilt attached themselves to Sami's conscience, but was squashed when Jason mentioned, “By the way, you know that Devitt’s here, right?”

Devitt? Devitt who? 

Sami bit back a nervous chuckle.

“Huh? Oh yeah, Becky was telling me. I hope he does well! Maybe I’ll get to meet him later? When, uh, I’m not like this.” Sami switched his fingers from massaging his temple to gesturing to the side of his head, which he hoped conveyed his so-called headache and not a self-inflicted joke about the his state of mentality.

“Definitely. Catch you later, Sami. And remember, busy day’s coming up.” Jason clapped his hand on Sami’s shoulder and gave it a light squeeze. Despite how bad it felt to not only take up his friend’s time during try-outs as well but to lie to him as well, it was the best possible way to avoid making a jackass of himself. The last thing that he wanted to do was get so wound up that he’d go into full nerd mode and start rambling to his coworkers about how badly he wanted to have a match against Prince Devitt, or worse, the volatile combination of blinding enthusiasm and impulse would lead to a head-on approach and a friendly challenge would be thrown down right on the spot. Internal protests that screamed _WHAT IF HE DOESN’T SIGN ON AND YOU WASTED THIS OPPORTUNITY_ were ignored, though barely, restraint proving to be more and more difficult.

As he walked past the glass windows that separated strength and conditioning from the training room, the group had split between a few people doing basic cardio in the ring while the rest of them, drenched in sweat, watched on as their comrades were getting loudly scolded. If these guys could handle the next few days, they could handle anything.

Unaware that he had been staring blankly at them for at least a minute or two, one of the coach’s whistles brought Sami back to reality. He shook his head, and before he could look away and resume the departure, he found himself locking eyes with none other than Prince Devitt from all the way on the other side of the in-ring area. At first he wasn’t sure if it was actually happening, but when the panic reaction was to awkwardly grin, Devitt responded in kind with a wide smile of his own, and then a wink. A wink? Sami didn’t even have a moment to register what had happened until Devitt had already turned away, now focused on the coaches’ instructions.

He took it as a cue to get the hell out of there.

The fresh air and sunlight were still not enough to fully bring Sami back to planet Earth. After the car was unlocked, he sat in it for several minutes before even putting the key in the ignition, realizing that in an odd turn of events the lie about the headache had become the truth. "Ridiculous," Sami thought out loud as he fished through the glove compartment to find a bottle of ibuprofen. Of course he wanted to stick around and meet Devitt and maybe even become his best friend, but simultaneously he didn't want to go through the process of any of that. Was there an equivalent of having something like a crush on another person, but instead of romantic feelings it was admiration for their expertise and wanting to test them as a result? This wasn't even the first time that Sami had felt this way about someone on his 'dream matches' list, but sometimes those people were either retired or were for the most part unattainable due to schedules or ties with various promotions. Rarely was he in a position of being so close to something that felt so grand and so plausible, and it was as exhilarating as it was nerve-wracking.

"Gotcha!" Sami exclaimed as he finally grasped onto the bottle and pulled it out. Two tablets were tapped out of the bottle and into his palm, then after they were consumed the car was shifted into drive with a course set for the apartment. Not interested in doing much else for the day and suffering from the ramifications of his deceit, once he reached home, he crashed onto the couch and slept.

* * *

The next two days were thankfully devoid of a headache in favor of heightened anxiety. Jason had checked in with Sami at one point and even offered to take him to lunch, but it was declined due to his schedule; had it come at any other day where they weren't filming, especially the biggest event so far in NXT history, he would have been more than happy to oblige. At least it felt as though he had a better grip on himself, and if there was a wild Devitt encounter at any point in the near future, childish tendencies could potentially be kept to a minimum.

The atmosphere in the locker room was as tense as it was electric, as was to be expected for NXT’s first live special. Sami was relieved when he found Cesaro -another target of his fixation- backstage so that he could give him his best wishes prior to their match. Cesaro's presence grounded him somewhat, even if he didn't really want to talk. That was understandable, though, given the heated words exchanged over the past few months.

As the show opened and time for their match approached, they took their places in gorllia position, and focused on respective cues. Off to the side, the familiar gruff voice of Triple H could be heard, and Sami could have sworn that he heard his name mentioned. Uncertain if he was being directly addressed, Sami turned to acknowledge Hunter, and his eyes opened wide as he quickly realized that it wasn’t him at all that his boss was talking to at all, but rather the sharply dressed man that stood nearby: Prince Devitt.

“Hey, good luck out there tonight, Sami!” Triple H called out, quick to notice that Sami looked his way. He now had the attention of both men.

“Thanks, Hunter!” Sami called back, always appreciative of his boss’ support; channeling that sudden rush of confidence, he nodded to Devitt as well. Seconds before his music hit, he caught another bit of conversation between the two men.

“Yeah, Zayn’s a real treat to watch live, you’re gonna love this,” Hunter beamed proudly, and Sami’s chest swelled. Unfortunately, chants of “Olé Olé Olé Olé” made it impossible to overhear Devitt’s response. He watched both men turn their focus through an opening in the curtain, and a split second after his music hit and he was off and down the ramp, fueled by an energy so raw it was as if he was powered by lightning itself. Tonight, he would put on a match so fierce and so perfectly executed that he, Sami Zayn, would be Prince Devitt’s final deciding factor to sign with the WWE, and the reason that all of the best in the industry would be soon clamoring at NXT’s door.

Unfortunately, Sami was unable to secure a win against the Swiss Superman that evening; despite that, he still felt victorious when Cesaro had embraced him as a sign of respect, and based on the roar of the crowd as they clapped and chanted **Sami! Sami! Sami!** , it certainly didn’t feel like a loss. Tears were quickly wiped away before he encountered Triple H behind the curtain, who was quick to pull him into a hug. When Sami looked up, Devitt was nowhere to be seen. He almost asked he had gone off to, but caught himself and simply gave his gratitude.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 'Maybe this was how Bayley felt when she met and interacted with Natalya and Charlotte. His brow furrowed as he thought about himself in Bayley’s predicament, suddenly more empathetic to his co-worker’s plight. Maybe it was better off to simply let things progress naturally without overthinking it.'

"So a 'Loser Leaves Town' match, huh?" Sami had caught Jason off guard on an early morning in March at the Performance Center. It had been roughly a month since Prince Devitt had his tryout and two months since KENTA had his, and until he finally caught up to date with NJPW’s programming, the only information that Sami had to go off of were useless internet rumors. He had wanted to text Jason about it when the news had broke, but it was late at night when that happened and so it would have been rude.

“Good morning to you too, Sami,” Jason cleared his throat, not yet quite awake enough to deal with an energetic Sami Zayn. “Well, he didn’t re-sign his contract with them...”

“Is it true, then?” Sami cringed internally as he heard himself, fully aware that the inflection had a hint of desperation in it. Jason chuckled softly.

“Nothing’s finalized yet, but things are looking pretty promising.”

It was hard to take “promising” as anything other than “yes this is definitely happening”, but Sami gave a valiant effort to not implode on the spot from excitement. Satisfied with that answer, for now at least, and not wanting to bother his friend any further, Sami opened his mouth to give an excuse to part ways, but Jason cut him off before he could say anything.

“Real shame that you two didn’t get the chance to meet when Devitt was actually here.” It wasn’t an accusation, just an observation, but Sami still squirmed.

“It was just bad timing,” Sami offered, which in fairness, wasn’t a lie. “I saw him around a few times, but there was no time for introductions.”

“Ugh, I know. It was absolute chaos. I think we had scheduled that try-out WAY before any of us knew that they were even thinking about doing a live special, so we had 30 guys coming in from all over the world and there was just no way that we could have rescheduled it so last second. It was just a case of one hand not talking to the other, which is bullshit, but hopefully we’ve all learned from this and can avoid it in the future.” Jason snorted as he looked at Sami, who dutifully nodded along. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to vent there.”

“No, it’s fine, really! I don’t mind at all.” The very least that Sami could after bothering Jason for so long with asinine questions was listen to him. Jason, in turn, gave him a dismissive wave and opted to change the subject, otherwise Sami would have spent the next 20 minutes assuring him that nothing ever bothered him and that everything was always sunshine in Sami Land.

“By the way, your match with Cesaro at Arrival,” Jason started. Sami swallowed hard.

“Yeah? What about it?”

“I don’t know if I ever got the chance to tell you face to face, but that was good, man. Really good. A lot of really important people think that might be match of the year, that’s how good. You really killed it. I just...I know you, I know how hard you work. I don’t know if you realize how special you are, though.”

“Oh...Oh wow. Thank you, Jason, that means a lot.”

“Anytime. Devitt couldn’t stop talking about it when I drove him to the airport. I wouldn’t be surprised if that match swayed him just a little bit. But I thought that you should know how good that was.”

“Thank you,” Sami repeated himself, uncertain if the current shade of his face matches the heat that had settled into it. He couldn’t handle any more compliments without overloading. “Alright, well, I-I’m gonna go work out now. I’ll catch you later, OK?”

A week later, Sami had woken up before dawn to stream Invasion Attack 2014, where he witnessed Prince Devitt lose against Ryusuke Taguchi. The next day, New Japan Pro Wrestling announced Devitt’s resignation, but there was still no answer within the WWE; if there was any news, he was sure that Jason would have informed him. In the meantime, another live event for NXT had been announced, so Sami took his frustration and channeled it into a laser-like focus to prepare for his match against Corey Graves for the number one contender spot, fully aware of the bar that he set with his match against Cesaro at Arrival.

On May 15th, exactly two weeks before NXT Takeover, the upcoming live special, Sami Zayn stood in front of his stove as he prepared scrambled eggs for a breakfast burrito. He glanced over at his phone, which had alerted him to a new text message. It was from Jason Albert.

"Devitt signed today. He's all ours." Attached to the text was a selfie of his older friend standing with Devitt, both grinning.

Sami read the text several times before he was able to comprehend the weight of it. He responded with, "Awesome! Tell him I said welcome aboard."

"Will do," Jason texted back.

Of course, Sami was well aware that Devitt wouldn’t be reporting to work the following day due to the lengthy process of getting a work visa, but it was still great news, much better than the uncertainty that had taken residence as far back as January. He recalled the process of when he obtained his own visa, and was marginally disheartened at the idea that it could take anywhere between 3-6 months before it would get cleared; optimistically, Devitt would officially be ready to go by August.

At NXT Takeover, a change to the card had Sami Zayn face against Tyler Breeze instead of Corey Graves, and again he lost during a live event; had he faced Graves, he may have stood a much better chance because he would have known what to prepare for, whereas Breeze was effectively a wild card for Zayn. Still, he was happy for Tyler, and hoped that this victory was enough to keep him away from the metaphorical chopping block for good.

A few weeks later, KENTA was officially announced as the WWE’s latest acquisition, and Sami could have sworn that he had almost fainted from excitement, but then immediately felt a tingle of dread rush down his spine at the prospect of one day being on the receiving end of the GTS. Meanwhile, Jason didn’t have any further news about Devitt’s work visa progress, and Sami didn’t push him for anymore information. While patience may have not been Sami’s strongest virtue, he was satiated by the pursuit of the NXT championship, and opted to focus on that in lieu of the man that he would hopefully be able to compete against within the next few months. And maybe become best friends with him. There was that weird train of logic again.

Frankly, Sami didn’t have much of a clue as to when or why his transitioned from not only wanting to wrestle against Devitt, but also wanting to befriend him. Maybe it was the compliments that were paid after Arrival. Maybe it had something to do with the less-than subtle homages to comic book characters, and Sami wanted to befriend someone in this industry that he could geek out with and not at (that maybe wouldn’t be quite as intense as Xavier Woods could be, because that was a realm of geekdom that even Sami couldn’t keep up with). Maybe this was how Bayley felt when she met and interacted with Natalya and Charlotte. His brow furrowed as he thought about himself in Bayley’s predicament, suddenly more empathetic to his co-worker’s plight. Maybe it was better off to simply let things progress naturally without overthinking it.

The summer weather descended early that year, and Sami’s Canadian upbringing made it difficult to adjust to the Florida humidity; come the peak of the season, he would mostly venture out for work or when he needed groceries, and otherwise he was mostly indoors. At the end of July, Sami found himself with a rare weekend off and made no other plans beyond hanging out directly in front of his air conditioner for the entire length of it. Or at least, that had been his intent until his doorbell rang on Saturday morning.

“Y’ello?” Sami asked through the intercom, not expecting company or anything out of the ordinary that day.

“Sami! It’s Jason. You mind if I come in for a minute? I got something I wanna show you.” Jason’s familiar deep voice rang through the speaker. Sami looked around his apartment at a sink full of dishes, laundry that occupied various corners, and comic books strewn about the livingroom floor. What timing.

“As long as you don’t mind that it’s sort of a disaster in here right now, sure, come on up.” He pressed the buzzer to allow Jason inside and sprinted around to gather up miscellaneous pieces of laundry only to throw them into the bedroom. A minute later there was a knock on his door. “It’s open!”

Sami, determined on getting rid of any evidence of dirty socks, had his back to the front door as it opened, and spun around when he heard the metal handle click as it shut. He was greeted by Jason’s humongous frame, which looked so out of place in the small galley kitchen. Before he had the opportunity to say “hello”, Jason shifted to the side, and Sami realized that they were not alone.

“Hey Sami,” Jason started, smile stretched across his face as Sami’s eyes were now wide with disbelief. “This is Finn Balor. We were in the neighborhood, and I thought that maybe it would be a good time to finally introduce you two.”

“Finn...Balor?” Sami let it roll off his tongue and settle; he wished that he had a moment in private to let everything that just happened sink in. Deprived of such a luxury, he needed to make certain that there were no awkward lulls or he would die right there on the spot, so he extended a hand. “That’s your name now, huh? That’s a really great name. It’s nice to meet you, Finn.”

Finn stepped forward, reached out and firmly grasped Sami’s hand to shake it. “It’s very nice to meet you as well, Sami.”

Sami didn’t expect his voice to be so gentle. Just like Becky, Finn pronounced ‘Sami’ with a soft ‘a’, which for some inexplicable reason amused him.

“Do you guys wanna come in for a little bit and sit down? Y’know, instead of hanging out in this cramped excuse for a kitchen?” Sami gestured towards the living room as he pondered how to entertain guests, something that he had rarely experienced until now.

“Nah, we can't hang out too long. Finn’s still in the process of moving in and getting a bunch of paperwork taken care of. You know how that goes.” Jason caught the look of disappointment that briefly flashed across Sami’s face. “But hey, if you’re free later, you wanna come give us a hand at Ikea? He’s got like no furniture, and we could use an extra hand to load stuff into the U-Haul.”

“Yeah, I’m not doing anything. I’d love to help out.”

“Really?” Finn seemed genuinely surprised, and any apprehension that Sami formerly had about going out into the heat dissolved.

“Of course,” Sami shrugged. “Just give me a call when you’re ready to go and I’ll meet up with you guys wherever.”

“Great, thanks man. I’ll talk to you later.” Jason opened the door and motioned for Finn to go first.

“Thank you. It was very nice to meet you, Sami,” Finn and Sami exchanged a handshake again.

“You too, Finn. I’ll see you guys soon!” Sami waved them off and closed the door behind them, then made his way over to the couch and sunk into the cushions. A groan that felt as though it had been compressed inside of his chest for over a century escaped as he exhaled, and exhaustion had suddenly overcome his nerves. The day had gone from 0 to 60 within the blink of an eye. Still determined to incorporate a scrap of his original plan into his new schedule, Sami adjusted his position so that he was vertical, closed his eyes, and relished in the ice cold air of his living room.

The peace was interrupted by Sami’s default shrill ringtone as it pierced through the tranquil humming noise produced by his air conditioner. He glanced at his phone to see who the caller was, and couldn’t recognize the number. It was also now after 2:00pm, and Sami realized that he had fallen asleep at some point.

“Mhm, hello?” he murmured as a greeting, a little disoriented.

“Sami? Hi, it’s Finn,” the voice on the other line answered, and Sami sat up straight and cleared his throat. “Sorry t’be bothering you, but Jason gave me your number. He said that you wouldn’t mind me calling...”

“Hi Finn! No, not at all. What can I do for you? Are we ready to ride?”

“Well see, that’s the thing. Jason had a bit of an emergency to deal with, I guess his dog got in the trash and ate a bunch of stuff that he wasn’t supposed to, so he had to bring him to the vet’s.”

“Oh shit, that’s awful. Is everything OK? I mean like...that’s a dumb question. Is he stable?”

“I think so? Jason was a bit spooked, but he sent me a text a while ago; they’re doing bloodwork and x-rays and all that noise. He said to give you a call and,” Finn paused for a moment.

“Do you still need help with Ikea? We can go pick the truck up, if you want. Jason’ll probably have to contact them to let them know that he won’t be present to get it, but like if you’re still down for it that’s cool with me.”

Finn laughed, and Sami could hear relief in it. “Would that be OK? I don’t want to intrude, I know that you kinda got put on the spot, and moving in the heat’s no fun.”

“Dude, I’m not doing anything else. It’s fine, really, I don’t mind at all. I wouldn’t want to subject anyone to going to Ikea by themselves. Should I meet up with you, or...”

“Could you? I uh, don’t have a driver’s license, so that’d be really helpful.” Was this man that Sami spent countless hours watching beat up other men, this goddamn super villain in Japan...did he just sound sheepish? Sami stood up and grabbed his car keys from off of his coffee table, then glanced at the mirror hung from across the room to check if his hair and beard weren’t totally unruly.

“Yeah, text me your address and I’ll head over. And if you could ping Jason to have him try to contact U-Haul, that’d be great.”

“Sure thing! Um, Sami?”

“Yeah?”

“Thank you, I really appreciate all of this.”

“Hey, you’re welcome. I’ll see you soon.”

It wasn’t until Sami had gotten into his car when the phone conversation, and the entire day so far as a whole, had fully registered with him. If the thought about it for too long, he’d probably succumb to anxiety; instead, he assigned Finn’s number as a contact in his phone and plugged the address that he received through text into his GPS.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 'Being alone for a few minutes gave him a chance to let his brain catch up with everything that had happened so far. Before 11am that morning, Sami was focused on earning another NXT title shot and maybe eventually being able to meet a guy named Prince Devitt that was in Japan, sometime after that he met a soft-spoken Finn Balor, and after 2pm he and Finn Balor were hanging out one-on-one at a Swedish furniture superstore. If that wasn’t the most bizarre sequence of events that he had experienced in a long time, he wasn’t sure what could top it.'

The drive to Finn’s place was a short one, and Sami was pleasantly surprised to find that they lived within a mile and a half of one another. He pulled his car up in front of a row of apartments on his right that the GPS had indicated was the destination, and sent Finn a text to let him know that he had arrived. A minute later, the door of the apartment furthest to the left opened, and Finn stepped out and bounded towards the car.

“Hello again!” Sami exclaimed as Finn entered the passenger side and settled into the seat. “Were you able to get ahold of Jason?”

“Hiya, Sami.” Finn clicked his seatbelt into place. “I was, he said that we should be all set to go. He also told me to give you his thanks for doing this an’ helping me out on such short notice.”

“How’s his dog?” Sami turned his left blinker on and checked his driver side mirror, then pulled into traffic.

“He’s on fluids now, since they had to induce vomiting and all that. They’re trying to determine if any foreign objects’ve been ingested.”

“Oof, that sucks,” Sami cringed, and Finn nodded in agreement. “Uh, by the way, where are we going to get the truck?”

“Oh, right. It’s U-Haul at the Florida Mall. You know where that is, yeah?”

“Yup.” Suddenly there was an uncomfortable silence. Sami turned the speaker level on his stereo as his mind raced for something to discuss other than the burning questions that he had about his acquaintance’s many accomplishments. A song that he had heard a dozen times at the grocery store started to play on the radio, some inoffensive alternative rock song about satellites that he tended to tune out. “So…’Finn Balor’, huh? That doesn’t sound like a standard issued name. That’s like, iunno, it sounds like the name of a metal band or something epic.”

Finn chuckled softly. “Well, that’s probably not a far off comparison. Finn MacCumhail is an Irish folk hero, Balor was the demon king, and the two battled each other, so I was sorta thinking of like a dual nature angle; also, Finn's m'dad's name, which is an added bonus."

"Holy shit, that might be the actual coolest...anything.” Sami was at a loss for comparison.

“Thanks. I really didn’t want to drop ‘Devitt’ because that’s my brand in Japan, but this is a new start so I thought about how I’d rebuild myself from the ground up.”

“You know, you’re gonna have to explain that name so many times in interviews. That’s always going to be the first question that you get.”

“Hunter said the same exact thing.” Both men laughed, and then Finn’s eyes wandered to the radio’s display. “Oh, I like this song.”

Sami turned the volume knob up a notch, and the two quietly listened to it until they reached their first destination. As they parked the car, Finn’s confused expression was not lost on Sami.

“You alright there?” Sami asked as he unbuckled his seat belt.

“Are we at the right one?” Finn asked. “Where’s the mall?”

“Right behind us,” pointed Sami. “It’s across the street.”

Finn turned around to follow Sami’s hand, still in doubt, and laughed when he saw the enormous building. “Oh geez, sorry to doubt you there. I’m still a bit off from all of the running around the past few days. I’m so fired up to get the place furnished after a week of sleeping on nothing but a mattress.”

“It’s all good. The name is very misleading anyway.”

The pair went into the building, gave the clerk their reservation information, and were handed a set of keys. It took them both a few minutes to realize that the parking brake was on, and Sami had to assure Finn that no, they didn’t damage the truck before it left the lot. He released the brake, and they were off to their second destination.

As was to be expected, trying to find a parking spot on a scorching Saturday afternoon at Ikea was a Herculean task, and Sami was having none of it. He immediately aimed for the most remote possible corner of the lot and was rewarded by a bounty of unoccupied spaces for what felt like a mile away from the entrance. Wasting no time, they sprinted across the pavement towards the store, and once they got inside they paused to strategize.

“Do we want to hit up the restaurant and eat before we start?” Sami inquired after having a flashback to his own recent expedition when he had moved to Orlando a little over a year ago.

“Nah, why don’t we go around the showroom first and pick stuff out before we grab a bite.” Finn was eager to get started after the recent flurry of activity, and Sami couldn’t argue with that logic. They grabbed a measuring tape, a pencil, and a map, and started their expedition.

“Wait, do they have Ikea in Japan?” Sami asked as Finn looked at over the selection of bed frames, and finally jotted something down.

“Actually, yeah. They one that was close to me had a lotta floors and was pretty tall. It’s amazing what they were able to cram in Tokyo, you’d never believe it until you saw it for yourself.”

“Huh.” Sami was now distracted by the selection of sofas and made himself comfortable on a more expensive sectional model.

“Ooh, that one’s nice,” Finn took a seat on the sofa that Sami occupied, and stretched his arms out over the top of it. Sami ignored the hand that was now directly behind his head. “I like it. I think this might be the one.”

"Alright, shall we continue then?" Sami stood up, gave a slight bow and extended both arms to mimic the perfect gentleman, which earned a giggle from Finn.

"Sure, sure," Finn located the tag, copied the numbers onto his ledger, and followed Sami's lead. It was impressive how painless the process was, and how quick Finn was to select the items that he wanted.

"You're very efficient," Sami noted. "Y'know, we don't have to rush or anything, you can take your time."

"Oh, well, I already looked at a lot of this stuff online so I sorta knew what I wanted. Just wanted to see it in person first before I committed to it."

"Ah. Smart." As they ventured near the restaurant area, Sami's stomach growled. "Hey, if we're pretty much done with this area, you mind if we get a quick bite? I kind of didn't have the chance to have lunch."

“Cripes, yes, of course! Aw man, if I had known I wouldn't have insisted on shopping first." Finn looked mortified.

"No big. I didn't think about it until just now."

"But you went out of your way to do this really nice thing for me, and I-"

"Finn, it's all good. Please don't worry about it, we're good." Finn didn’t seem entirely convinced, and Sami smiled to try to giving meaning behind his words.

"OK, let's get you fed then, yeah? My treat."

“Oh, well thank you for your generosity, Mr. Balor.” Sami teased as they took their place in the line.

“It’s my pleasure, Mr. Zayn.” They grabbed dining wear, and Sami guilted himself into following Finn’s example and stuck to dishes that only consisted of meat and vegetables. After the food was paid for, the pair accosted a small table that was flush against the windows, and made quick work of their meals. Sami gazed out the window and wrinkled his nose as he watched the influx of traffic pull into the parking garage.

“Getting outta here’s gonna be fun,” he absently remarked as he scratched his facial hair.

“Shall we get a move on, then?” Finn offered as he put his fork down, now finished.

“Sounds good,” Sami shoveled the last bit into his mouth, and after they deposited their dishes, they descended into the marketplace. Finn was a little less prepared in this area and more prone to distraction, but Sami was also full and content this time around. An hour passed, and when Finn realized that he could no longer fit anything into either the shopping cart or the comically large tote bag that Sami carried for him, he admitted defeat and they moved to the warehouse to retrieve the bigger ticket items. Once everything was rung out and paid for, they guided it all to the loading dock, and Sami pulled the truck keys out of his pockets.

“You stay here, I’ll go bring the truck around,” Sami called out behind him, already in motion; it was harder to sprint after transitioning from the air conditioned building to the suffocating humidity, so he jogged instead. Being alone for a few minutes gave him a chance to let his brain catch up with everything that had happened so far. Before 11am that morning, Sami was focused on earning another NXT title shot and maybe eventually being able to meet a guy named Prince Devitt that was in Japan, sometime after that he met a soft-spoken Finn Balor, and after 2pm he and Finn Balor were hanging out one-on-one at a Swedish furniture superstore. If that wasn’t the most bizarre sequence of events that he had experienced in a long time, he wasn’t sure what could top it.

Finally at the truck, he put the keys in the ignition, and drove to the loading dock. Finn energetically waved both arms to flag him down to an empty space, Sami cautiously backed into it, and they both worked frantically to load up the truck and escape the heat.

“Man oh man, this weather’s quite oppressive,” Finn remarked breathlessly as they climbed into the truck, his t-shirt now damp with sweat. Sami wiped the beads of moisture from the back of his own neck, not in any better of a condition himself, and turned the AC up to full blast.

“Yeah, welcome to Florida. You picked a helluva time to come over. I recommend wearing any other color but white in the summer time, otherwise,” Sami pointed to Finn’s shirt, “you get a little transparent.”

“Geez,” Finn laughed as he looked down at himself. “Noted, thank you.”

“Dude, I don’t want to make this weird, but like...OK here goes: I’ve met a LOT of different guys of all shapes and sizes in our industry, and you are just in the literal best shape that I have ever seen. How? I mean, I work out, and I eat well. I could probably stand to eat a bit better, if we’re being honest. But you’ve got some kind of Greek god shit going on that’s almost unnatural. What are you doing that other people aren’t?”

Finn’s laughter continued at Sami praise. “Well, I have a really high natural metabolism, always had, but other than that it’s a lot of discipline. I basically just eat meat and vegetables and that’s really it. Maybe have a beer once a week.”

“We’re going to go grocery shopping together at some point so that I can see this for myself and maybe learn a thing or two.”

“Sure thing. Those were very nice words that you had for me, by the way. Thank you.” Finn teased.

“That wasn’t me being nice, I’m just mad that I don’t look like that,” Sami responded weakly without an actual hint of conviction in his tone. He glanced over to the passenger side and caught Finn glowing, grin spread across his entire face, and Sami felt something in his throat. “I think that something I ate must have given me heartburn.”

“I’ve got some Tums at home,” Finn offered, the grin turned to a concerned expression.

“That’d be great, thank you.”

Due to Finn’s lack of vehicle, they were able to park the truck directly in front of his apartment to unload the furniture. Finn unlocked the front door, propped it open, and ran inside. When he returned, he offered a bottle of antacids to Sami.

“Here, take these,” he said as he passed it off, and then got busy with opening the rear gate of the truck. Sami stared at the medicine for a moment before he realized what had just happened, then grabbed two tablets and popped them into his mouth as something at the base of his throat constricted again.

“Hey, thanks for that.” Sami spoke softly as he followed Finn’s lead and started to bring smaller items inside. Once enough room had been cleared, they both grabbed ahold of the couch, and Sami found his voice again, “By the way, I never asked, when do we need to return the truck?”

“The reservation is good until tomorrow morning, but we can return it before then if we’re done.” Finn’s voice as a bit strained as they maneuvered their way into the living room. Upon setting it down, Finn stretched and looked around at all of the boxes. “Y’know, you don’t have to stick around and help, you’ve done so much and I can handle it from here.”

Sami couldn’t read Finn as either trying to be nice or wanting time to himself, and he scratched the back of his head as he formulated a response. “Wouldn’t it be a bit easier to have another set of hands to put together all of this stuff? Like I’ll go if you want me outta your hair, but I also don’t mind sticking around to assist.”

“I’d love to have your help, Sami, if you’re up to it. Why don’t we get started with the couch, so that we can sit on it after and order some takeout.”

“I like your thinking.” Finn got to work on opening the box, while Sami rummaged through one of the large blue totes to find the tool kit that they had picked up. They took turns deciphering the instructions, although Finn had a far better grasp on the pictograms, which left Sami to do the bulk of the assembly; Finn had asked several times if he wanted to switch, and Sami declined every time, his excuse being was that he felt “manly” when he assembled furniture. Eventually, the couch was completely constructed, and the two stood back to admire their handiwork, only for them to sprawl out on it seconds later, each taking up one side of the sectional.

“So,” Sami started, and Finn grunted in acknowledgement, “I know that you just revealed your diet secrets to me not too long ago, but how would you feel about splitting a pizza tonight?”

“An evening of decadence isn’t going to ruin me,” Finn chuckled, then added, “But let’s make it a small, I’ll order a salad on the side. Unless you want to consume most of a large on your own.”

“A small’s fine, lemme just pull up the menu to place not far from here that’s pretty good.” Sami focused on his phone while they negotiated toppings, and then called in the order. “OK, should be here in 45 minutes.”

“Great! Wanna help me get this bed put together?”

“Yeah, sure,” Sami looked around. “Did you get a mattress, though? I don’t remember.”

“I already had one, it’s in the bedroom. I’ve been sleeping on with in on the floor for the past few days.”

“Well,” Sami stood up and wielded his trusty phillips head screwdriver. “Time to fix that.”

The box that contained the bed was carried into the bedroom, and was promptly opened once set on the floor. Finn shoved the mattress out of the way as Sami investigated all of the pieces, then beaconed Finn over to read the instructions and aid him in holding pieces together; overall it took significantly less effort than the sofa. As the mid-beam and wooden slats were laid down, and a loud knock came from the front door, and Finn stood up. “That must be the food, I’ll go get it.”

Sami, now alone, lifted the mattress and placed it onto the frame. To make certain that his handiwork would hold up, he lowered himself onto the bed and sat on the edge of it, wiggled his hips, and was satisfied when nothing creaked or budged. Whatever laundry detergent or fabric softener that Finn used smelled nice, he noted.

“Comfy, are ya?” Finn asked from the doorway, and Sami stood up straight before the sentence was finished. “Relax, I’m just playing with you.”

“I’m just making sure that my shoddy work won’t make you fall to your death in the middle of the night.” Sami responded quickly as he tried to recover from getting caught off guard, but his heart beat so quickly that it felt like it could puncture itself on a rib at any moment. He took a deep breath, which helped regulate his pulse, and he clapped his hands together. “So, food?”

"It's all set up in the other room," Finn hitched his thumb behind his shoulder as he said this.

"Great!" Sami exclaimed, and brushed past Finn to get access to the much-deserved reward of pizza. Finn deviated from the food and made himself busy in the refrigerator.

"You want something to drink? I've got beer, water bottles, and orange juice," he called out to Sami, who in the meanwhile had already shoved a slice of pizza into his mouth.

"Water's fine. Please." Sami responded after a minute as he made haste to chew and swallow his food. A clink and a hiss came from the kitchen, then Finn returned to the living room and handed a water bottle to Sami while he held onto a beer bottle for himself. For a few minutes there was silence as both focused on their dinner, until Finn reached over and picked up the TV remote from off of the floor.

“So wait, did you get a TV before you got any furniture?” Sami asked as Finn started to flip through the channels.

“This is actually Jason’s old set. He’s letting me borrow it so that I wouldn’t get too bored,” Finn stopped on Blade Runner before he resumed eating. “I figured some background noise would do us good as we’re putting together the rest of the stuff.”

“That’s fine.” Sami reclined a little further on the portion of the couch that he occupied, and turned his attention to the TV. The film was more than half over at this point, and as Rachel entered Deckard’s apartment, Sami could feel his eyelids growing heavier.

“Everything alright?” Finn asked, his voice sounded distant.

“Mhm, I’m fine,” Sami yawned as his eyes closed, and only moments later he nodded off.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "...You don’t want to isolate yourself when you make this transition, trust me. We’re all after the same goal here, why not work together and rely on your friends when you’re down?” Sami wished he could have rephrased that last part, as he had no idea if he and Finn were friends yet or not, or if he was being overbearing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi friends that have come this far! Thank you for reading. I'm currently working on illustrating a few scenes from this, so going forward if you have a favorite scene, please let me know and I'll use popular opinion to determine what I'll draw next :)

The mixed aromas of coffee and eggs caused Sami to stir from his slumber. He cracked an eye open, and realized that A) He was not in his own apartment and B) At some point, he had obtained a pillow, which he did not recall happening; in fact, he barely recalled anything that happened after Finn had turned on the TV. 24 hours ago, Sami Zayn was borderline obsessed with meeting the man whose sofa he would help build and wake up on 24 hours later. Not weird at all. He sat up, stretched, and peered through the opening that lead to the kitchen. Finn was focused on the stove, presumably at whatever he was cooking, and he stood damp haired and shirtless. Sami had cracked jokes about it before, even to Finn himself, but now he was genuinely astonished that any human being could have that kind of figure.

"Morning!" Finn called out, now turned away from the stove, and Sami had no idea if he had been staring.

"Oh, hey," Sami cooly responded, and worked to fix his gaze literally anywhere else. "I didn't mean to pass out, I'm really sorry about that."

"Don't be. Coffee?" Finn held up the coffee pot, ready to pour it into a mug.

"Yes please," Sami stood up to retrieve it, not wanting to distract Finn any further.

"For what it's worth, I fell asleep like right after you did. I guess we were both burnt out from shopping." Finn handed Sami a mug with a giraffe on it, and Sami smiled at the goofy illustration. "I woke up pretty early, so I went out for a jog, came back and took a shower. I tried to give you a pillow, but you weren't having any of it."

"Must've changed my mind at some point, because I woke up with it. Sleep me is a real ungrateful bastard, please forgive him for his transgressions."

"Roger that. I've got an omelette going on, if you'd like some."

"That sounds amazing right now."

Breakfast was served on the couch, as the two had neglected to put together the kitchen table the night before, and after they finished Sami helped Finn clean up the dishes. According to the clock on the microwave, it was 8:41AM, and Finn remarked, “Gotta get the truck back soon.”

“Right. Are you going to need anymore help with all of this?”

“Nah, I’ll manage. I’ve gotta do some unpacking as well and start turning this into a home.”

“OK, well you have my number in case you need anything else.” Sami pulled the truck key out of his pocket as he made his way to the door. “See you around?”

“I’m officially starting tomorrow,” Finn beamed, but quickly reverted to a demure expression. “Sami?”

“Yeah?” Sami spun around to look at Finn while his hand remained on the doorknob.

“I can’t thank you enough for all of your help. You went so far out of your way for me, and we’ve just met. You’re an outstanding gent, and,” there was a brief pause, “I can’t wait to work with you.”

Sami could have sworn that he felt his heart skip a beat at that last part; he could practically hear the crowd chanting and the announcer introduce Finn Balor, his challenger in a pinfall or submission match for the NXT championship. As the fantasy played out in his head, it was his turn to grin. “Anytime, Finn. We are going to have a LOT of fun. I’ll see you tomorrow at work.”

The next day, the WWE made the official announcement about their latest acquisition, and Finn Balor reported to the Performance Center to begin his training. Since it was his first day and he was constantly flanked by several different people, Sami opted to give a simple greeting and then left him alone. This repeated the next day as well, and Sami could only be empathetic as he remembered his first few days in NXT and having to adapt to the WWE schedule and lifestyle. Still, he tried to get Finn’s attention here and there, giving a small wave and receiving one in return, but was never able to get a word in. By the end of the third day, after promo classes, Finn had started to look a little worn.

When Sami got home from work that night, the first thing that he did was send Finn a text message to check in; a simple, “Hey, how’s it going?”

Sami was a bit alarmed when his ringtone started playing almost immediately after he sent the message. It was Finn.

“Finn? What’s up, man?”

“Hi, Sami? Are you fine with me calling?”

“Of course I am. Are you alright?” There was a moment of silence, and Sami tried to visualize if Finn had the bashful expression on his face that he had seen a few times so far.

“I’m...tired, honestly. It’s a lot to take in. All of it. I feel like my brain’s all scrambled.”

“That’s normal, but you’ll get used to it. Was it the promo class that go to ya? That happens to everyone when they first start out.”

“There’s a lot that I’ve never had to think about before, like the cameras and stuff, y’know?”

“Do I ever. I went through exactly what you’re going through like a year and a half ago, but I promise that it gets better.”

“Sami.” There was another pause.

“Finn?”

“I think I’m a little homesick as well.”

“That’s normal, too. But uh,” Sami’s mind raced, he tried to remember his own coping methods when he first moved to Florida. While he was honored that someone would open up about that kind of stuff to him, he was also flabbergasted that anyone would do such a thing, and he wished that he knew Finn better so that he could find genuinely comforting words other than tired cliches. “Y’know, we’re taping tomorrow, so we get the morning off. Do you have any hobbies that maybe we could like...iunno, indulge in? When I first moved here, I got super lonely at times. It sucked. So I bought a skateboard and I started to skate again. And it was so goofy because I’m like 30 and therefore ancient as far as skateboarders go, but it gave me something to focus on that wasn’t work or that soul-crushing loneliness.”

“Actually,” Finn started slowly, voice perking up on each word, “I like to bike. But I don’t have one here yet.”

“Then tomorrow morning we’ll go hook you up with a sweet ride.” Finn laughed at that, and Sami was proud of himself.

“Thanks. I’d like that.”

“You got it. Do you need anything else? I can stop by if you want.”

“I think I’m good for now, I have a few things to get done around here. I think that I just needed to get that outta my system, and you just seem like the right person to go to.”

“I’m here to help. I’ll let you get back to your stuff. Take care, let me know if you need anything, and I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Goodnight Sami. Thank you again.”

“Night, Finn.” After they hung up, Sami pulled up the web browser on his phone and began to look up the best bike shops in Orlando. Several minutes into his research, he realized that Finn never specified what type of biking he liked to do, so Sami jotted down several different specialty ones in the area.

As promised, the next morning Sami picked Finn up from his apartment, and handed his passenger an iced coffee from Starbucks.

“For me?” Finn lit up as he accepted the beverage. “That’s very kind of you!”

“Well, I owe you for breakfast. Hope just milk’s fine? It didn’t seem like you took yours with sugar.”

“That’s perfect.” Finn took a few sips, then looked back over at Sami. “So where’re we off to this morning?”

“Actually, that depends on you. What kind of bike do you wanna go get?”

“Promise you won’t make fun of me?”

“Cross my heart.”

Finn took a deep breath. “I want to get a BMX bike.”

“Really?!”

“Yes, but you said you wouldn’t-”

“I’m not teasing you. That’s awesome. We should totally go check out the X-Games at some point.”

“Yeah?” Finn’s response was enthusiastic, which caught Sami off guard.

“Yeah, why not? I mean, I have no idea when because our schedule is bonkers, but we’re in the US now and that’d be cool, eh?” He didn’t mean to sound so Canadian there. “Anyway, if it’s a BMX bike you want, we’ll just go to the place where I got my skateboard. They’ll definitely have whatever you need, AND they have some ramps behind the store that you can try stuff out on..”

Sami got onto the highway and they drove 20 minutes north to a town outside of Orlando, and pulled up into a small shopping plaza that housed the store. Finn wasn’t sure what brand that he wanted, but knew that he wanted a red one, and the clerk was happy to assist him get something modest that performed well but was easy to handle. After a test ride, he made his purchase, and the two strategized how to get a mostly assembled bike frame into Sami’s sedan. Once they were finally able to fit it in, they made their way back to Finn’s apartment.

“We probably should have planned this better,” Sami laughed as he looked in the driver’s side mirror and could see a bike tire sticking out of the window behind him. “By the way, are you feeling any better?”

“Hm? Oh, yeah. I dunno, I think I was overloaded. Sorry for going off like that on you, I was being ridiculous. We’ve hung out once and now I’m like putting all of this baggage on you.”

“Hey, I asked how you were doing and you responded, that’s fair. Look, shit’s pretty tough at first, and you shouldn’t have to deal with it alone. You don’t want to isolate yourself when you make this transition, trust me. We’re all after the same goal here, why not work together and rely on your friends when you’re down?” Sami wished he could have rephrased that last part, as he had no idea if he and Finn were friends yet or not, or if he was being overbearing. “Besides, we’ve hung out twice, now. Also, what about Becky and Jason? And Hideo? You’ve got a great support network already, take advantage of that.”

“They’re definitely great people, and some very good friends. Some of my best, in fact. I guess I don’t want to bother them, y’know?”

“So it’s OK to bother me?” Sami joked, which got a snicker from Finn.

“You DID ask me how I was doing! ‘Sides...iunno, you’re easy to talk to. Like there’s no effort, and you seem get it, get where I’m coming from.”

“Oh. Thank you.” That wasn’t what Sami expected at all. He always strived to be open and encouraging, but “relatable” was a new one; he got the impression that he annoyed people more than anything else. As he prepared to switch lanes, he glanced in the rearview mirror and caught sight of the bike again, and seeing that common ground they shared improved his morale. If an Armani model that also happened to be one of the world’s best wrestlers thought that he was easy to talk to, maybe that was good enough. “By the way, I’ve got a toolkit back at my place that should take care of everything you need for the bike, if you wanna swing by and grab it before we head into work.”

“I picked up a kit at the shop, but thank you. So are you giving me a lift, then? To work, I mean.”

“If you’d like one, then yes. We’re already driving together, so it makes sense.”

“Of course. We’re swinging back by my pad to drop of the bike, right? ‘Cause I gotta get changed.”

“Whatever you need, man.” Sami took the exit ramp off of the highway, and a few minutes later they were back at Finn’s place. Initially Finn attempted to help Sami remove the bike from the backseat, but Sami waved him on. “Go get changed, I’ll bring this inside.”

It took a good 10 minutes, but Sami was able to remove the bike from his backseat. He placed it on the ground and lead it through Finn’s front door, then propped it up against a bare wall.

“I’m all set,” Sami called out.

“I’ll be out in a few minutes!” Finn called back through the closed bedroom door, and Sami took a seat on the sofa while he waited. So far, it looked as though Finn was settling in well; already several shelving units were up and filled with a variety of books, from graphic novels to trashy sci-fi paperbacks, and plenty of action figures lined them. On top of a desk that was off to the side there were stacks of what looked like sketchbooks, colored and regular pencils, and a large plastic tote bin that had ‘LEGO’ written in marker on it. If Sami Zayn was ever looking for someone to get his particular brand of nerd on with, Finn Balor appeared to be his match.

“Alright, I think I’m ready,” Finn announced from behind Sami.

“Great, let’s get-” Sami had stood up and turned to face the direction of the voice, but forgot what he was about to say the moment he beheld Finn. “Are you for fucking real right now?”

“W-what?” Finn looked down at himself, confused as to what could possibly earned him that tone of voice. Sami had expected Finn to maybe put on a nice polo shirt and clean khakis, but not a full designer suit with tie and leather dress shoes, all of which probably totaled more than what his car was currently worth. Finn really was a goddamn model, something that really hadn’t sunk in for Sami over the past few days, and something that he still had trouble comprehending when a big plastic tub labeled ‘LEGO’ sat within his peripheral vision that was presumably owned by this aggressively handsome man.

"You look good!" Sami blurted out, then instantly realized how awkward this entire situation was and wished that he could go back in time and cut out his own tongue. "I mean, you dress well. I'm like, in what, a shitty band shirt and basketball shorts? I look like a natural disaster compared to you. They're gonna call FEMA on me when they see us walk through those doors together."

"Oh, this is how I usually dress for big occasions. I'm meeting with Hunter today, and possibly some other executives before the show starts," Finn responded defensively, then softened a bit. "You're actually DOING something today, Sami, and that's way more important than appearance."

"Not when you look like THAT." Sami groaned dramatically, then smiled. "C'mon, let's hit the road."

"You look fine!" Finn insisted, and Sami chuckled as he opened the door for him. The bickering ceased once they got back into the car, and Sami changed the topic entirely.

“How’s unpacking going?”

“Slowly, but I’m hoping to get a good amount done this weekend. I just try to tackle one box a day, and so far it’s kept me from getting frustrated with the whole process.”

“I like your decor choices. Nice figure collection, by the way.”

“Oh, I’ve got way more packed away. I’ve got so many silly mementos, y’know. They provide a nice distraction, otherwise life gets too serious and then what’s the point?”

“True that.”

When they arrived at Full Sail, Finn was almost immediately seized by Triple H and his wife, Stephanie McMahon, so Sami made his way to the locker room to prepare for the upcoming event. He changed into his ring gear and started to stretch, while the pre-show jitters began to stir up in the pit of his stomach; however, he was aware of a contrast between the jitters from previous times, which were fueled by anxiety, and now, which was fueled by excitement. The coaches had the wrestlers gather around, gave a briefing on the upcoming cards, and it dawned on Sami that he would potentially be at the top of every hour for the next four hours, provided he and Adam Rose could win all of their matches together. Approximately 15 minutes before they were set to start taping, the floor manager alerted everyone to ready themselves and take their places, and Sami rushed to find Adam so that they could discuss their strategy for the first round. As he turned a corner in haste, he collided into none other than Finn, and the two fell to the floor in a heap.

“Oh god, Finn!” Sami exclaimed, scrambled to pull himself off of the floor and then helped Finn to his feet. He instinctively brushed off Finn’s sleeves, and looked him up and down to assess any damage. “Are you OK? I’m SO sorry.”

“Sami, I’m not your opponent tonight!” Finn laughed, which also got a laugh out of Triple H and Stephanie, and the look of mortification on Sami’s face when he realized that his bosses were also present was almost unbearable. Finn squeezed Sami’s arm and looked him in the eye. “I’m fine, really. Go get ready for your match. I’ll catch you later.”

Sami nodded and politely excused himself, then proceeded with much more caution. Shortly after, he was able to locate Adam, as well as Adam’s party crew, his spirits were instantaneously lifted by the upbeat group of goobers. The two fed off of each other’s energy and were successful in the first hour, but failed to capture victory in the next few rounds. Despite everything, any trace of dejectedness was gone when William Regal announced that Sami would be a participant in a Fatal 4-Way for the NXT championship at the next Takeover special.

Once the show wrapped up and the locker room had mostly cleared out, Sami hit the shower, his entire body aching after working for four hours. He imagined that whatever came tomorrow would be the full-body equivalent of what someone would experience when they had a hangover, or so he could only guess. The hot water was close to scalding, and he found himself missing the showerhead back at his apartment. Finally satiated and not wanting to stand any longer, he shut down the water and stepped out of the stall, and blindly pawed around in the completely steamed room to find the towel bar.

“Sami, you in here?” Finn’s voice rang out, and Sami’s grabs grew frantic until he was able to grasp his towel and pull it around his waist.

“Uh, yes. I am in here. That you, Finn?” Sami feigned ignorance, as he knew damn well whose voice that was, and Finn seemed to materialize from the ether itself and into the locker room. “Hey there! Are you gonna need a ride back?”

“Oh, huh? Yeah, that’d be great, if you wouldn’t mind. But Sami, you-”

“Hold on, can...you mind grabbing my gym bag? It’s over the third bottom locker to the right against that wall,” Sami pointed, not wanting to be pushy but not wanting to feel this bare right now. Nudity didn’t usually bother him, as he had shared far grimier locker rooms with far grimier men, but Finn was so polished and overdressed that he felt vulnerable in his presence. Finn seemed happy to oblige, and retrieved the contents of Sami’s locker and handed them to him. “I’m just gonna get dressed real quick and then we can go.”

“Sami, you’re incredible!” Finn burst out, and Sami couldn’t tell if his face was flushed or if the room was just unbearably hot due to...something to do with the shower and physics or whatever. He couldn’t think straight, and so he hid away in the stall for privacy as he clothed himself. “Just the way that you move, your ring psychology, the way that the crowd reacts...you’re amazing to watch. Your matches were fantastic.”

“Wow.” He peaked his head out from the shower curtain to look at Finn. “Thank you, that...that really means a lot to hear. Especially from someone like yourself. As good as you are, I mean.”

“Oh, I...” It was Finn’s turn the be rendered speechless for a few seconds. Sami managed to get his shirt pulled over his head, slung his bag over his shoulder, and approached Finn.

“Ready?”

“Yeah.” They were both quiet until they got to the car, and as they started to drive away, Finn loosened his tie and quietly asked, “You think I’m good, huh?”

“I think,” Sami paused to carefully phrase the next words that came out of his mouth, “I think that we’re cut from the same cloth. We’re two guys that don’t believe in ourselves as much as we ought to, so we constantly push ourselves to the absolute fucking limit. But I look at you, and I see one of the best in the world, and maybe that’s how you see me as well. And one day, one day, Finn, we’re gonna have a match, and it’s going the make the WWE implode on itself, because it’ll be that good. Because you and I are THAT good.”

Sami risked glancing over at Finn, who looked like he was deep in thought. At that moment, ‘You Make My Dreams’ started to play on the radio, and that serious expression formed into a sly grin that spread wide across his face. “Did we just become best friends?”

“That depends, do you wanna go do karate in the garage?”

“Yup!” They simultaneously cracked up, and Sami had to pull the car over as he practically doubled over from laughter and had to wipe the tears from his eyes.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "We're both adults here! Must we resort to violence?"
> 
> "Finn, our paychecks are based on how well we can beat other men up."
> 
> "Sami," Finn paused as he tried to come up with a witty retort, but instead crossed his arms and huffed. "Put the damn cartoon on."

In early August, Sami had received an unexpected call from Kevin.

“Hey, I’m dropping by,” Kevin announced matter-of-factly from the other end of the phone.

“Oh, great! Uh, when though?” Sami looked around at his apartment, and wondered how long he had to get away with putting off cleaning.

“I dunno, in the next 15 minutes maybe?”

“WHAT? You’re in the area?”

“Yeah. You’re around, right?”

“I’m home, I’ll be here.”

“See you in a bit.” And that was the end of the call. Sami shook his head in disbelief, then rushed over to his kitchen and began to clear off his counters, putting almost all of the stray items in random drawers and cabinets. True to his word, Kevin had arrived 15 minutes later, and Sami was almost at a loss for words until Kevin ruffled his hair and pulled him into an affectionate hug.

Kevin wasted no time making himself at home, and looked terribly amused at Sami’s choice of decor. Before Sami could ask, Kevin started for him. “Go ahead, ask me why I’m here.”

“Are you trying out?” Sami demanded, almost cutting Kevin off.

“What? No, I already did that almost a year ago, I-”

“Wait, what? Then why...” Sami turned pensive. “It was suggested to me by a few people that I ask you to give us a shot. I thought that meant like to ask you to try out with us.”

“Keep going, you’re almost there,” Kevin coaxed with a hint of sarcasm.

“You signed with us?!” Sami’s face lit up when Kevin nodded in confirmation. “Shit, that’s awesome! Is that why you’re here?”

“Well, I’m mostly here because I was looking at houses, but I figured since I was in town and all I’d pay you a visit.”

“It’s good to see you and all, but why didn’t you tell me about trying out?”

Kevin shrugged. “I didn’t want you to know and then bug me or get distracted with your own work or whatever it is that you do when you get way too excited about something. To be perfectly honest with you, I wasn’t entirely sold on signing my soul over to the McMahons, but NXT’s done a pretty solid job with handling El Generico’s ‘good friend’ ‘Sami Zayn’, and they made me an offer too good to refuse, so here I am.”

Sami laughed at the liberal use of air quotes, and couldn’t argue when he was thoroughly pigeon-holed. “Generico says ‘hi’, by the way.”

“Oh wow, did he call all the way from Mexico? That’s gotta be expensive for him, what a guy to do that and keep in touch.” Kevin’s poker face never faltered as he badgered on, and Sami burst out laughing.

“So is Kevin St-”

“It’s Kevin Owens, now.”

“Ah. Is Kevin Owens, now, gonna be going after anyone with a chair once he’s in NXT?”

“We’ll see what happens once El Generico’s good friend Sami Zayn gets the NXT title. Now let’s go get something to eat. Show me what’s good in this god-forsaken swamp, before I steal all of your dumb action figures and give them to my son.”

Sami brought them to an unassuming diner that he frequented, and the waitstaff was happy to take their orders and, for the most part, leave them alone to catch up. Kevin initially dominated the majority of the conversation and brought Sami up to speed with how his family fared, then proudly shared pictures of his newborn daughter. The topic eventually changed to how life in the WWE varied from life on the independent circuit, and Sami enthusiastically offered his input, positive about every aspect that he had experienced so far and every person that he had met. After an hour and a half, they finally requested the check and left a generous tip for allowing them to stay well after they finished their meals.

Despite what popular opinion may be, Sami knew that it didn’t really take much to appease Kevin, and as a follow up to their lunch they visited a local wildlife refuge. Every resident animal received Kevin’s undivided attention, his eyes wide with awe and voice so gentle as he addressed them; had Sami not known him for over a decade, the tenderness that his physically imposing friend exhibited towards all fauna would have been jarring. At the end of their excursion, Kevin made Sami wait for him as he stopped by the reception desk, and Sami wasn’t even shocked when Kevin handed over his credit card to sponsor each of the animals at the facility.

“You know, if word ever gets out about you constantly doing stuff like this, it’ll probably kill your whole ‘badass’ reputation,” Sami teased.

“No it won’t,” Kevin retorted matter-of-factly. “I would break a man in half to save a goddamn chihuahua if I had to. No one’s going to mess with a guy that could and would do that. Would you?”

“I absolutely would not.”

“That’s what I thought.”

Their last stop was at a comic book shop, which Sami insisted that they go into. He darted over to the toys and browsed through the Ghostbusters selection, then picked out a Pop! Slimer figure. On the way to the register, he paused to look at a small art supply display, with colorful signs that advertised that these were the “tools of the pros”. A sleek black brush pun caught his attention, as well as a small sketchbook bound with thick pages of off-white paper; Sami didn’t know what was considered to be quality materials by actual artists, but neither item seemed flimsy so he brought those up to the register as well and requested two separate bags as he checked out.

“Here,” he handed one of the bags for Kevin. “Give this to Owen for me.”

“Aw c’mon, this is another thing that we’re gonna have to pack now!” Kevin playfully punched Sami in the shoulder, then took the figure out of the bag to examine it. “This is great, he’ll love it.”

“You said that he was starting to get into Ghostbusters. Excellent taste, might I add.”

“What’s in there? Some Archie comics?” Kevin pointed to the other bag with an obviously curious expression.

“Oh, just some stuff to draw with.” Sami tried to play it off as though they didn’t even exist, but it further raised Kevin’s suspicion.

“You’re not an artist.”

“I could be! I can be an artist!” Sami countered defensively.

“Nah.”

The conversation dropped there, as Sami knew it was a silly one to begin with and Kevin would stubbornly defend his stance. Not that Kevin was in the wrong. Running short on time, they wound up back at Sami’s apartment so that Kevin could retrieve his rental car and said their goodbyes.

“Make sure that you have something drawn for me by the time I’m back, artist!” Kevin called out before he opened the driver’s side door.

“No way, you don’t deserve my art!” Sami yelled, but Kevin was already in the car.

The grueling schedule of the beginners’ classes made it difficult for Finn to hang out for the first few weeks, and Sami offered his sympathy and support to his colleague. They’d often have late-night text message conversations to commiserate, which mostly resulted in the common theme of expressing how tired they both were. However, due to his experience, Finn managed to transition to the intermediate classes at an accelerated pace, and Sami was elated to finally start working together.

As the sun had started to set on another hot summer day, and Sami had started to settle in for an evening of Netflix binging, the doorbell rang and caught him off guard. He pressed the intercom and answered with “Hello?”

“Sami! It’s Finn!” Sami could practically hear Finn’s wide smile. “Are you busy?”

“Nah, I was about to veg out. You wanna join me?”

“Come outside.”

Without further questions, he left his apartment to oblige with the request, and sure enough Finn was there with a smile as bright as the sun itself as he was proudly perched on his bike.

“Oh snap, check you out!” Sami exclaimed, which caused Finn to giggle. “That’s so sick. When did you get it put together?”

“Just a few nights back. I’ve been so busy that I couldn’t get to it sooner.”

“Can you do any tricks?”

“I haven’t practiced any. This is ‘er maiden voyage, so to speak, and I’m probably a bit rusty.”

“S’all good. Would you and ‘Red’ like to come join me inside?”

“We’d be honored to.” Finn hoisted up the bike and followed Sami up the stairs and into his apartment, then left it propped up in the narrow entryway after he had shut the door behind them. “So, what’s the plan for this evening then?”

“Honestly, I was just gonna catch up on a show tonight."

"Oh yeah? What would that be?" Finn had already taken a seat on the couch and look expectantly up at Sami. Momentarily, Sami debated making something up other than his actual intent, but thought that it was unlikely for Finn would be judgemental over his tastes.

"Adventure Time." He braced himself for mockery, but Finn's reaction was pure jubilance.

"You know who's in that show, right?" Sami didn't have an immediate response and considered all of the celebrities that had guest roles in previous episodes. The only person that he could think of was John DiMaggio, the voice of Bender and Jake the Dog, but Finn answered for him. "Finn the human! ME!"

"Holy shit." Sami's face dropped, and he was torn between relief and a level of second hand embarrassment that he had yet to experience in this lifetime. Truly, Finn was his kind of person. He followed suit and took a seat as well, then grabbed a decorative pillow and tossed it at the side of Finn's head.

"Ah! Why am I getting assaulted?" Finn laughed and whipped it back at Sami, and it hit him in the chest.

"For being the biggest goober to grace this Earth. You come into MY house and out-goober ME? In my own home? Such disrespect."

"We're both adults here! Must we resort to violence?"

"Finn, our paychecks are based on how well we can beat other men up."

"Sami," Finn paused as he tried to come up with a witty retort, but instead crossed his arms and huffed. "Put the damn cartoon on."

Several hours passed as both sat engrossed by the surreal animation that played on the TV screen. They had just finished the episode that recounted Marcelline and the Ice King’s past, and neither man dared to look at the other. The next episode started with a picture that Jake and Finn were drawing on their computer, and Sami suddenly remembered the art supplies.

“Heya, Finn?” Sami asked, breaking the silence.

“Ya talkin’ to me or the TV, mate?” Finn retorted, and the pillow was thrown back at him. “AH! What?”

“Do you draw? Like, are you an artist?”

“I guess. I’d say so, yeah. How’d you figure that out?”

“Last time I was at your place, I saw your pencils and stuff, so I sorta figured.” Sami got up and retrieved the plastic shopping bag from his kitchen table, then handed it to Finn. “I wanted to get a...iunno, a ‘welcome gift’ or a housewarming present or something, but I didn’t really know what. It’s just something else for you to focus on when you get homesick again.”

Finn cautiously pulled the pen and sketchbook out of the bag and examined them, handling them delicately; he swallowed hard, looked up briefly at Sami, then back down at the items now in his lap. “These are...whoa. These are really great, man.”

“Really?” Sami was surprised, Finn’s expression was nothing but authentic. “I just saw them at a local comic shop. It’s not a big deal or anything, and I don’t know much about art supplies but they seemed nice.”

“No, these are fantastic, they’re what some comic artists in Japan use to make illustrations. They’re really high quality, you can get them over there easily enough but they’re a pain to find most anywhere else.” Finn flipped through the sketchbook, and he stopped to rub a page between his thumb and forefinger. “I love the thick paper. Sometimes I’ll buy a pack of cardstock to draw on, but then I can’t use markers on it because it’ll bleed. This stuff won’t have that issue, it’ll stay nice and crisp.”

“Geez. OK, I’m glad I didn’t get you the RoseArt crayons of the drawing world.”

“Technically crayons are drawing tools.”

“You’ve never experienced RoseArt crayons, have you? Your parents must actually love you. They’re not tools, they’re a horrid mockery of everything good in this world. Using them is like coloring with a candle.”

“Sounds awful. Thank you for getting me these and not those candle crayons instead.”

“We’re friends, Finn. Friends wouldn’t do that to one another.”

“You’re a very kind friend, Sami.” The remainder of the episode went mostly unwatched, as Finn removed the pen from its packaging and flipped open to the first page of his new sketchbook. He laid down a few trial strokes of various widths, then filled the bottom corner with crosshatching. Satisfied with the test results, he flipped to the next page and laid down some linework that seemed to have more purpose and definition. Half way through what appeared to be a strange humanoid figure, Finn looked up and his eyes met with Sami’s, who at some point had moved closer and loomed over Finn’s shoulder to watch, now their noses almost close enough to touch; Sami launched himself backwards towards the other side of the couch, and felt awful for unintentionally invading someone’s personal space.

“SORRY! Sorry! It looks really cool, whatever it is that you’re doing! AUGH, I’m so sorry, it’s was rude of me to watch! I can’t draw so I’m really impressed by anyone that can and-” Sami stammered, but then was drowned out by an equally flustered Finn that had slammed the book shut.

“No, NO! No! I’m sorry, I’m the one being rude! We were hanging out and then I got distracted and I started doing this, which isn’t exactly social of me!”

Sami blinked. “What? No! Dude, I bought that stuff for you, it’s cool if you wanna draw here! I’m flattered that you’re actually using them instead of letting them sit around. I really don’t mind, go on with your bad self. But uh, may I ask what you were drawing?”

“Oh.” Finn slowly reopened to the page that he was working on and then held it away from himself, and Sami inched a little closer to examine it. “So yesterday Hunter brought up the body paint to me, and I guess he wants to maybe have me use it? But we gotta come up with a whole new concept, because obviously we can’t do the Marvel or DC stuff over here, so I’m trying to think about like...what a demon looks like; what ‘Balor’ looks like to me.”

Though the drawing was mostly gesture lines, Sami was able to make out defining features, like jagged teeth and a long swirling tongue that protruded from a huge gaping mouth. It was a hideous and alien construct, but a beautiful piece of concept art. True to Finn’s remarks, the linework was crisp without any smudging, and Sami was content that he was able to give something of use. “This is really amazing, Finn. Thank you for sharing it with me.”

“Anytime. Now, shall we continue with the show?”

“Actually,” Sami yawned, “I’m getting pretty tired, so I might call it quits here. Do you want a ride back to your place so that you don’t have to ride around in the dark? Or you can stay here for the night, and we can just head into work together tomorrow. The couch is a sleeper model.”

“I’m OK with staying put for tonight, since you offered.”

“Great! Let me go grab an extra pillow for you. You want a bedsheet as well?”

“Yes, please!”

“Sure, hang tight.” As a bachelor, Sami was regularly in disbelief that he even had more than a single set of bedsheets to spare, but his mother had accompanied him during his first shopping trip to furnish the apartment and made certain that he obtained every necessity imaginable instead of blowing his earnings on things like posters and vinyl records and novelty ice cube trays; he was at least able to negotiate with her about getting a Jolly Roger shower curtain. He fished through his bedroom closet and found an unopened flat sheet, which he tore open, then grabbed a pillow from off of his bed and toted them back to the living room. The couch was now vacant, and the bathroom door was shut, so Sami laid both items down and began to set up the bed. As he worked, the bathroom door opened and Finn stood in the doorway, wearing nothing but a t-shirt and boxer-briefs. “Alright, should be all set.”

“Thanks.” Finn wasted no time in making himself comfortable and stretched out on what would be his bed for that evening, then pulled the sheet up to his waist. “Hey, so I normally sleep in just my trunks. Would that be alright with you to do here?”

“Do what you gotta do.” Before Sami could go on about how he had spent the past decade grappling mostly naked dudes on a daily basis or about how disgusting the weather was in Orlando to show that he was totally, 100% cool and not weird about this, Finn peeled his shirt off and laid back. “OK, at the same time I’m torn because you come into MY house with your ridiculously chiseled everything, and…”

“And what?” Finn rolled onto his side, propped himself up by his elbow to get a better look at Sami, and smirked.

“I’m positive that you’re not an actual human being. No one looks like you and spends over three hours of watching cartoons on a random-ass weeknight. You’re like some kind of extraterrestrial that forgot what his assigned mission was on this planet and is now bumming around with a loser.”

“You’re onto me. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to incubate or do whatever it is that aliens do when they get their rest.”

“Well then, I’ll leave you be. Goodnight.”

“Night, Sami.”


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I’ve cried myself to sleep on because of the stress, because of the pressure that I put on myself, only to fail. Anyone that claims that they haven’t is a liar. Don’t let the odd machismo attitude of our industry prevent you from being a human being first and foremost.”

Another TakeOver loomed in the very near distance, and it was confirmed by William Regal that Hideo would be debuting that night as well. When Sami wasn’t preparing for the upcoming Fatal 4-Way, he often would accompany Finn and Hideo on various errands, which were usually just English coaching lessons applied to real life scenarios. Between Finn’s basic grasp on Japanese, Sami’s ability to speak three languages fluently and thus understanding linguistic structure, and Hideo’s razor sharp wit and intelligence, the three men developed an effective system that enabled Hideo able to cut a brief promo in time for the live special. Hunter applauded all them all for their efforts.

In Sami’s opinion, it seemed like it had started to become a tradition for him to lose on the live specials, and he fluctuated between being horrified and disappointed with Adrian’s actions during their match; he wasn’t entirely without empathy, and knew that as a champion you have to take certain risks to hold onto your title, but it burned a little that one of those risks was their kinship. After he had cleaned up, he slunk around backstage and tried to avoid contact with his co-workers, since the last thing that he wanted was anyone’s pity. As luck would have it, he turned down a hall, and facing his way was Adrian himself.

“Good match, Sami,” Neville’s soft voice even quieter than usual, and Sami felt a touch of heat rise in his face. He wanted to lash out, wanted to express how hurt he was by his good friend’s actions, but before he could unleash any words a firm hand placed itself on his shoulders, and Sami turned his head to see who else could possibly want to patronize him further. The aggravation that threatened to overflow immediately ceased when he met Finn’s cool blue eyes, and he felt grounded.

“Hey Sami, you think you could give me a ride back?” Finn asked, then he turned and nodded at Adrian with a polite smile.

“Of course.” Sami cleared his throat, then looked back at Adrian as well, and responded with, “Yeah, it was a good one. See you soon.”

Once the pair had climbed into their respective sides of the car, Sami let out a loud groan and slammed the back of his head against his car seat. “DAMMIT!”

For a while, there was only silence that was occasionally interrupted by Sami’s muttering, the frustration now resurfaced and now was completely self-inflicted. “I’m so stupid! How did I fuck up that badly? I’m never gonna get anywhere here…”

“Sami, stop,” Finn’s voice was so even, so calm, and Sami wished that he could steal a bit of that composure for himself. Instead, always the kind to wear his heart on his sleeve, Sami’s voice raised louder as he vented about how useless he was, when something unexpected happened: he choked back a sob. He looked over to Finn to confirm that the sensation that he had just experienced wasn’t just his imagination, and judging by the look of surprise and concern, it was real. In that moment, Sami wished that lightning would just strike him where he sat, but also somehow spare his friend if physics would somehow allow for that. While he moved his head to rest it on the steering wheel and hide his face as much as physically possible before he risked completely breaking down, he felt the same reassuring hand from earlier gently run up his back, which only fed the vulnerable state further.

“I’M THE WORST!” Sami exclaimed before his body trembled and tears welled up in his eyes. In one fluid motion, the hand traveled from the middle of his back to his left shoulder and gently tugged Sami towards the direction the passenger seat, then Finn used his free arm to pull him in for a hug. It was the final push over the edge for Sami, tears now freely spilled. “Oh fuck, you and your nice clothing. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be,” Finn chuckled, then his voice was suddenly low and serious and the vibrations emitted from his sternum hit Sami like a train. “Look, we’ve all been at this point. I don’t know a single person that does what we do and hasn’t dealt with this level of heartache. The difference between all of those people and you is that you’re the best at this. You’re probably the best in the world, but you don’t see that because of how hard go on yourself. Adrian knows this, and fuck, the cheeky bastard wouldn’t have won without resorting to cheap tricks. And Sami?”

“Hm?” Sami had calmed down, his breathing not so erratic anymore.

“You really did put on a helluva match. And I’m so honored to be able to call you my friend.”

Sami sighed heavily, then pulled himself away from Finn’s gentle grasp and sat back against his seat again. “I don’t think I’ve been like this since the shit that Kev pulled years ago. You ever get so angry that you cry, or am I just a total weirdo like I’ve long suspected?”

“Many times. I’ve cried myself to sleep on because of the stress, because of the pressure that I put on myself, only to fail. Anyone that claims that they haven’t is a liar. Don’t let the odd machismo attitude of our industry prevent you from being a human being first and foremost.”

That last sentence resonated strongly with Sami. He studied Finn’s face and tried to determine in there was even the slightest hint of deceitfulness, like the universe had perhaps gifted him a cruel joke in the form of a friend with mock empathy. Without meaning to, he blurted out “How are you such a good person?”

“I dunno if I’d go that far...I just think about my own shortcomings and disorders, and how these thing’ve impacted me, and how it isn’t fair for anyone to face criticism for the things that make them human.”

“I can see why Jason always had wonderful things to say about you.”

“Oh yeah?” Finn laughed, and Sami could have sworn that there was a hint of nervousness in it that had replaced that earlier calm. “Did he have anything else to say about me?”

“Besides singing your praises? Just that he thought that we’d get along.”

“Guess he was right about that one.” Whatever uneasiness Finn had let slip vanished, and Sami thought that maybe he had imagined it in his exhaustion.

“Alright, I think I’m doing better. Why don’t we get going?” Sami put his keys in the ignition and buckled in. As they drove off into the night, Finn pulled out his phone and occupied himself with it for several minutes.

“So,” Finn started, “I’ve been told that I have to come up with a new Twitter handle. What’d you do for yours?”

“Oh wow, that must mean that they want you to debut soon. Well, I kind of like the ones that are more formal, like Sasha’s is ‘SashaBanksWWE’. I think as long as you don’t do what Enzo did for his social media, you’ll be fine.”

“Yeah, but what’d you do for yours?”

“You have to promise not to laugh.”

“I can just look it up right now.”

“It’s ‘iLikeSamiZayn’.” Finn’s head shot up, and Sami knew that he was being scrutinized without even looking over.

“You’re joking.”

“Hey, you can look it up! You said so yourself!”

“Holy shit. Sami, this is amazing. ‘I like him, I guess’. Oh my god, Sami!”

“Aw c’mon, don’t...don’t do this to me.”

“I think I’m gonna make my Twitter handle ‘iLikeSamiZaynMORE’.”

“Finn, you can’t.”

“No, I’m gonna, watch.”

“No, you literally cannot, it’s more than 15 characters.”

“Oh.” Finn sounded dejected. “So it is. That’s a load of bollocks. OK, well how about…’ElGenerico’.”

“You can’t do that, either. Also I’m revoking everything that I said about you being a good person.”

“Too late, you’ve already fed my ego. I’m unstoppable now.”

Later that night, long after Sami had dropped Finn off at his apartment, Sami’s phone alerted him that ‘@wwebalor’ was now following him on Twitter. He unlocked the phone so that he could return the favor, and sat in tired disbelief when he got to Finn’s feed and saw what he had input for his display name: “ILikeSamiZaynMORE”.

The fallout from TakeOver: Fatal 4-Way was ferocious, to say the least. For weeks, Hideo was ruthlessly preyed on by The Ascension, and had been attended to by medical staff at least twice; meanwhile, Sami had amped up his aggression, unwilling to let friendship get in the way of his goals yet again. It wouldn’t be the first time that Sami had dealt with a friendly rivalry, and if he had his way with Finn it sure wouldn’t be his last, but he sorely wished that the entire situation didn’t leave such a bitter taste in his mouth. Finn seemed to have the least stressful deal out of the three, as he finalized the concept for Balor and awaited for his scheduled debut. Sami was surprised that they wanted to have Finn debut during a taping instead of a live event, but Finn simply stated that there was a perfectly good reason for why that was happening and then said no more about the topic.

As the date closed in for Finn’s debut, Sami noticed that he had started to revert back towards his more withdrawn tendencies, and that he has started to decline invitations on excursions or engage in their usual late night text conversations. Car rides to and from work were quiet, and Finn seemed distant in the passenger side seat.

“Hey, you wanna go kayaking with me this weekend?” Sami would ask, or something akin to that; if it wasn’t kayaking, it would be biking, or hiking, or seeing a goofy B-film at the local independent cinema. Anything that might entice Finn to come out of his shell.

“Um, no, not this weekend. I’ve got a bit of work to do.” Finn would typically respond, and that would be the end of the conversation. No too long after, they had stopped riding to work together, as Finn started going in with Dusty and Hideo.

Sami’s anxiety gnawed away at him, and he was convinced that he had done SOMETHING. Maybe it was the minor breakdown at the last TakeOver, and something about that had made Finn realize that Sami was too clingy, too much effort to deal with as a friend. Every time he dwelled on it, an enormous pressure felt like it had built up in his lungs, and it became slightly painful to breathe.

On an early Fall morning, Sami fired up his iPod, took his skateboard outside, and rode without any specific destination in mind as a way to escape his own thoughts. While it was still warm, the air was no longer humid, and Sami didn’t feel like he was choking on a damp paper towel as he moved. Company would have been nice to have, and Sami considered contacting Kevin for the third or fourth time that week, but worried that he’d be on the receiving end of a frequently versed “why don’t you find someone to date already so that you can bug them when you’re bored?”. Of course, Sami knew that it wasn’t mean-spirited, and Kevin had even said many times that Sami was smart to focus on his career and respected his decision to not settle down, but just the notion of having to deal with courtship when he was so caught up in work, and now trying to determine why a good friend wasn’t really talking to him, was so stress inducing that it was enough to keep him out of the dating market altogether.

Of course, he wasn’t shocked when he found himself a mile and a half away from his apartment and in Finn’s neighborhood. “This is absolutely ridiculous, we’re adults here. I should just be able to talk to him.”

Sami hopped off of his board and picked it up, pulled the earbuds out, then walked over to Finn’s front door and knocked on it. Some shuffling could be heard from inside, and moments later the door creaked open and Finn peered out of the narrow opening. As their eyes met, door was flung open and Finn smiled brightly, which Sami didn’t expect.

“Hiya! What brings you ‘round here? Do you want to come in?” Finn inquired, but was already in the process of practically dragging Sami inside.

“Please, yes.” Sami willingly went along, and Finn shut the door behind him. The apartment now looked as though it was thoroughly lived in, with framed artwork now adorning the walls, a variety of houseplants housed on multiple surfaces, and even more action figures that took residence on even more surfaces than the plants did. On the small desk was what was clearly the start of a Lego structure, and Sami realized that the bin he had seen a while back was not misleading at all. “Hey, so-”

“Do you want something to drink? I put on some water on for tea.” On cue, the tea kettle began to hiss and rumble, and Finn busied himself in the kitchen to settle it down.

“That sounds great, thank you.” Sami moved over to the desk to get a closer look at what Finn had been working on, and dared not to touch anything for fear that he would accidentally lose a crucial piece and all of this work would be for nothing. “Finn?”

“Hm?” Finn responded as he passed through the doorway with two steaming mugs and set them down on the coffee table, then gestured for Sami to sit with him.

“What’cha working on?”

“Oh, it’s just a space shuttle. I usually pull out my Legos when my brain starts getting too cluttered, it helps me focus. Seems a bit silly, huh?”

“No! No, not at all.” There was a familiar lapse in conversation, and Sami wished that the water wasn’t scalding so that he could take a sip and have an excuse for the silence. “So you’ve been busy lately?”

“Yeah, it’s really bad right now. Dusty’s trying to help me get my driver’s license, and that’s like a whole new set of skills and attributes that I’ve never had to worry about until recently. I’m so bad at it, it’ll be a miracle if I pass the test.”

“That’s normal, though. Guess we won’t be driving into work together once you get it, huh?”

“What? No, don’t be silly, it’s just for now.” Finn looked genuinely surprised, and Sami felt awful for even having said it. He had gone into all of this with a mindset of confrontation, perhaps brought about by his recent aggressive attitude at work, but Finn had seemed nothing but receptive to him since he had shown up unannounced.

“But yeah, learning to drive is really stressful, I feel ya.”

“Yeah, between that and work…”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, I...oh god Sami, I…” Finn rubbed his face and drew his knees to his chest. “I don’t know if I’m ready, y’know? I don’t know what I’m doing. I’m so used to just going out there and doing my thing, and everyone here’s so supportive, but like...Hunter and William have all of these huge expectations of me, and what if I fuck up and embarrass them? What if all of the experience that I’ve accumulated are useless because I can’t connect with the audience? And I didn’t have to worry about any of this over in Japan because of the language barrier, but it’s a whole new game here and I don’t know if I’m an entertainer as well as a wrestler.”

“Wait, has this just been weighing on you? Like have you talked to anyone about it?”

“No. I don’t...it’s stupid to bother someone with. I’m freaking out over something that’s so asinine.”

“It’s not asinine, not even a little bit. Especially considering that you’re like...iunno, all introverted and stuff, so all of this is understandably a lot to deal with. Aw shit, this has really been eating you up, eh?”

“I guess, yeah.”

“Dude, you can talk to me about this kind of shit, I’m here for you. Look, remember after you first moved in and we got the bike and you said that you didn’t want to bother your friends that were already here about actual legitimate things?”

“Sort of.”

“Well don’t do that to me. Don’t shut me out like this, please. I know exactly what you’re going through, and...I don’t want you to think that you’re ever a bother to anyone, especially not to me. And like even if you don’t want to talk about it, that’s OK too. Just come over and watch dumb cartoons with me. I mean if you need time alone, that’s cool, too, but...” Sami sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. “You switched off recently and I was starting to think that you hated me. And it wouldn’t have been the first time, I know that I get on a lot of people’s nerves. And I got scared because you’re a really solid bro and I like hanging out with you.”

“Sami, I’m sorry.”

“Fuck, no, don’t be sorry. Ugh, I was trying to console you and I turned it into a sad story about myself. How rude is that, I’M sorry. But look, for real, you’re great. You’re going to do great things here, you will, I promise. It might take some time for you to get used to the way that things are run during tapings or whatever, but you’re not alone for any of it. And I’m sorry for not checking in more and asking to see if you were OK. You don’t hate me though, right? Like I gotta know.”

“Oh my god, no. You’re probably my favorite person. You’re at least my favorite co-worker.” Finn stuck his tongue out a bit and Sami laughed. “I’m really sorry that I didn’t explain this better before, like how I get and stuff.”

“Nah, don’t be, I should have picked up on the clues in the first place. You wanna just chill today? We don’t even have to do anything.”

“That’d be nice. Would you be offended if I kept working on my shuttle? You can make yourself at home and do whatever you want here, if you’d like.”

“Not at all. I’ll just pick through your comics or something.” Together, they spent the remainder of their day quietly engaged in their own worlds, content to just have the other nearby.

The energy of the night that Finn was set to debut was as intense as any of the live specials had been so far. Earlier that day, Sami had stuck close to Finn’s side, always ready with a bottle of water or looking out for a quiet place that he could hideaway if he needed it. Later, during Sami’s match, he recalled Adrian’s earlier “everyone knows you can’t win the big one” barb, which only fueled his drive, and enabled him to beat Tyler Breeze for the number one contender spot.

For the last match, The Ascension’s heavy metal riffs and smoke effects riled up the audience, and they took their place in the ring as they waited for Hideo. Sami, now cleaned up from his earlier match, stood backstage near Finn, and together they watched a monitor that projected several camera angles that were recording from inside the arena. A crew person approached Finn and alerted him that he was on in 15 seconds, and before he turned to leave, Sami gave him a reassuring pat on the back and, due to the chaos and noise, mouthed “good luck”.

“Thank you,” Finn mouthed back, and was off. Sami could hear Hideo’s announcement, and a crescendo hit; on the screen “Prince Devitt” flashed, and the screams of the audience became deafening. Finn stood under his old name with an expression of pure awe, the words dissolved in “Finn Balor”, and he was down the ramp and off to aid Hideo. Together, they were a formidable team, and after a relentless assault of coordinated strikes from both newcomers, The Ascension found themselves beaten and the arena erupted into cheers.

Backstage, Sami patiently waited as Finn was greeted and congratulated by various co-workers and their boss, Triple H. Eventually, Finn was able to break away from everyone by saying that he needed to get cleaned up. Before he made his way to the locker room, he stopped over by Sami with a dazed grin. Sami took one long look at Finn, then grasped him and pulled him in for a hug.

“I’m all sweaty,” Finn lightly laughed.

“Did you hear that? Did you hear how excited they were for you when they saw your name up there?!” Sami held him at arm’s length and returned Finn’s grin.

“Yeah, I...I didn’t even know that anyone over here knew who I was.”

“Everyone knows who you are, everyone knows how good you are, and everyone finally got to experience it live. I got to experience it live.”

“How’d I do?”

“Remember after Fatal-4 Way you told me how proud you were to be my friend? Well I gotta return that sentiment to you now: I am so proud to have the honor of knowing you, let alone being able to call you my friend. Now go get showered so we can split.”

“Sorry I got sweat all over you.”

“Nah, I deserved it after crying all over your suit.”


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “What was it that you said a while back? ‘Don’t let the attitude of our industry keep you from being human first and foremost’?”
> 
> “Did I say that? That’s pretty good.”
> 
> “Something like that, anyway. I kind of like...thought about that a lot and applied that to life, y’know? It makes living less uncomfortable, less weird.”

As if 2014 hadn’t already been an enormous success for NXT, they had started to air promo videos to hype up Kevin’s upcoming arrival, and Sami would send him a text message each time he had seen it; at first, the messages were sent out of excitement, but quickly it was just as a method to annoy Kevin, something which Sami took great pleasure in.

For Thanksgiving, Sami’s original plan had been to consume enough sushi to go comatose for the long weekend, but Jason had insisted that he and Finn join his family for dinner, and he wasn’t about to turn down a free home-cooked meal. The morning of, Sami coordinated plans with Finn via text and somewhere between the two trying to figure out etiquette for the American holiday, Sami had asked, “So what are you wearing?”

“Ooooh Sami, didn’t know it was like that,” Finn quickly messaged back, and Sami’s face burned like the surface of the sun.

“No dumbass, to the dinner.”

“I was thinking something silky…”

“I hate you. Don’t ever talk to me again.”

“You’re incapable of hate. Also my suit is made of silk.”

Initially, Sami had set aside a business casual ensemble for the day, but didn’t want to be underdressed around a man that was a professional at being really, really, ridiculously good looking, so he pulled a suit out of the back of his closet and laid it down on the bed. He then busied himself in the bathroom with newly obtained grooming supplies that he had impulsively purchased at a recently opened high-end shaving boutique. There hadn’t been a reason to stop in other than mild curiosity, but a charming salesperson had Sami physically test out their various wares, and once the lemon-scented shaving lotion hit his nostrils and he had felt how soft the texture of his beard was after an application of their beard oil, he absolutely had to have one of everything and walked out of the store $200 poorer. He hadn’t quite a had a chance to use any of it out until now, and he assumed that this was what it was like for someone that had never worn makeup before to go out and face the world painted up for the first time; yet again, he related to Bayley.

Polished and now suited up, Sami gave himself a once-over in the mirror, and was satisfied with his appearance. His phone buzzed due to a message from Finn, which relayed that he had arrived. Finn had recently gotten his driver’s license, and the day before had purchased a new car, and therefore he was insistent that he be the one drive them. So far, Sami had no idea what kind of car Finn had, but when he stepped out the door and down the stairs and saw Finn doing that pose that he did so often when was excited in front of a Mini-Cooper, he stopped dead in his tracks.

“Is this real life?” Sami tried to hold back his laughter by biting his bottom lip as he grinned.

“Yeah! It’s my first car!” Finn was so enthusiastic, so proud.

“It’s perfect, Finn.” Once they were both in the car, Finn adjusted the rearview mirror and ever so slightly, then looked out the driver’s side mirror, and waited for Sami to buckle up before he even started the car.

“By the way, I’ve never seen you all dressed up and fancy. You look nice.”

“Thanks. I’d say the same, but I’ve seen you like this a dozen times at this point so you just look normal to me now.”

Finn sniffed the air, then turned to look at Sami, moved closer, and inhaled. “That you? Smells nice, like fresh lemons.”

“Yeah, I got all this new stuff, like for men’s grooming. Dude you gotta feel my beard, it’s so soft right now.” He moved stretched his neck out so that his chin was accessible, and Finn gently stroked the facial hair.

“It’s like a kitten! You think that’ll work on just stubble? I get kinda lazy when it comes to shaving on the reg.”

“The salesperson said it would. They gave me a few samples when I checked out, but you can have ‘em.”

“Such a gent,” Finn remarked as he withdrew his hand and placed it firmly on the shifter. “Alright, let’s get a move on, then.”

“Mhm.” Sami grunted in acknowledgement, then glanced at himself in the mirror and ran his hand down his face to smooth out any stray hairs. The ride to Jason’s was about as steady as one could be when given by a person with a new license, and Sami made liberal use of the passenger side handle bar. Once they made it to their destination, Finn looked over at a now pale-faced Sami and asked, “Was it that bad?!”

“You’ll get better at it with time,” Sami offered, and Finn grimaced.

Before they even had the chance to knock on the door, it swung open, and Jason greeted them; if there was any question about whether or not they were overdressed, Jason’s New England Patriot’s jersey answered it for them. Finn and Sami glanced at each other, and Jason welcomed them with a, “C’mon in, boys!”

Finn gave a bottle of wine to their host, clearly more prepared for this than Sami, and as Jason examined it, he added, “It’s from the both of us.”.

“Aw, thanks guys. By the way, you’re both looking sharp. You didn’t have to dress up, though, we’re quite informal. But here, let me get your coats.”

They handed their suit jackets over, filed into the livingroom to watch football, and Jason joined them shortly after with a cooler that he placed next to the overstuffed loveseat that Sami occupied. As Finn got up from the armchair to retrieve a beer from the cooler, Jason’s children rushed in and sprawled out all over the vacant furniture; after they reprimanded Finn for not calling “fives”, he conceded and took a seat next to Sami.

“Move over a bit, mate?” Finn squirmed as he tried to get comfortable, which proved to be a task as Sami was stretched out almost over the entire surface of the loveseat and was obviously not going to let up.

“No way, you came into my territory, you deal with my legs. You wouldn’t understand, it’s a thing that people over 6’ tall need to do.”

“Oh my god, I’m 5’11. Move.” Finn tried to shove a leg over, and Sami retorted by draping said leg over Finn’s knee.

“5’11 is still under 6’. Sorry pal, I don’t make the tall people rules.”

Finn finally stopped struggling, now focused on his beer and the game. After a few minutes, Sami elected to be merciful and make more room, then became aware that his leg was still over Finn’s and slowly pulled it back in an effort to be subtle. Now that he was made acutely aware of Finn’s introversion, he did his best to reel in any actions that could be overbearing and possibly lead to overstimulation. However, if Finn was bothered by the excessive physical contact, his body language gave no indication that anything was wrong.

Over the course of an hour, Jason had left and resurfaced multiple times, and would always rush back in when someone would holler loudly in excitement over a play, then shout, “What did I miss?”, usually while holding a wooden spoon or set of tongs. Just as everyone started to get restless due to the wafting scent of turkey, his loud voice boomed from the dining room, “Kids and work kids! Dinner!”

The crowd gathered around the table and took their seats. As various foodstuffs were passed around, Sami watched the heap on Finn’s plate grow and teased him with, “Woah, you sure you’re not going to ruin your figure this way?”

“It’s a holiday, and an American holiday at that, so I have to try to assimilate. Also it means that I should have an extra beer, right Jason?”

“Right. Do it for America, Finn.” Jason encouraged from across the table, before he looked over at one of his kids and sternly said, “Stop giving the dog scraps! Eat your green beans!”

“‘Side, we’ll just have an extra run at the gym, yeah?” Finn looked back over at Sami with a smile.

“Wait, ‘we’ll’?” Sami uttered as Finn busied himself with a forkful of food.

Once everyone was overloaded with food, leftovers were packed away, and dishware was loaded into the dishwasher, the entire family, Sami, and Finn and migrated back into the living room to catch the final quarter of the game. Finn had already consumed a beer and a glass of wine, and was now rummaging through the cooler again for a second beer. This time, instead of trying to push Sami’s legs aside, he just sat down and swung his own legs up and over the top of them, then nestled in.

“Hey, you’re gonna be the one driving back, right?” Jason asked Sami as he grabbed his sleeve to get his attention.

“Well I am now,” Sami responded then eyed Finn, and poked him in the arm. “Hey, you. Gimme your keys.”

“Oh, good call.” Finn nodded and reached into his pockets, then handed his keys to Sami’s outstretched hand. “You’re a good friend, Sami.”

“I know. Also, I can move over if you want.” Sami placed the keys in his own pockets and started to shift in order to give Finn a bit more room, but stopped when he realized that Finn’s legs were heavy and holding his own in place.

“Nah, I’m comfy. ‘Sides, now it’s my territory, I’m in charge here.”

“Kay.” Finn’s resolution proved to be weak, as he eventually adjusted his position to sitting up straight, and Sami took his legs back and followed suit, glad to do so as he felt them starting to numb up. Shortly after, Finn placed his finished beer bottle on the coffee table, then gradually quieted down; at first Sami was concerned and was ready to offer to move and let Finn have the loveseat to himself, but was completely at a loss of how to react when Finn leaned over and rested his head on Sami’s arm, completely passed out.

“Dude, is he asleep?” Jason asked, now vertical over on the sofa, his huge arms folded across his chest.

“I guess? Maybe he’s in a food coma.” Sami’s arm started to grow uncomfortable as Finn’s entire body weight pressed into it, so he lifted it out from under him and moved it to rest on the back of the loveseat, which in turn gave Finn access to Sami's entire torso and thus more space to settle and redistribute mass.

“You really are a good friend, Sami,” Jason chuckled.

“I try, I really do.”

As evening stretched on and Jason’s yawns became for pronounced and frequent, Sami nudged Finn to wake him up so that they could get going. Finn rubbed his eyes and looked up at Sami with a sleepy grin, then said with a minor slur, “You’re awfully cozy there, Sami.”

“C’mon drunky, we should go.”

“‘M not drunk.” Finn stood up to prove a point, but then immediately sat back down. “OK, buzzed, but not drunk.”

“Either way, you’re not driving.”

“Right, that’s fine.”

Jason got up and retrieved their suit jackets, and his wife handed them both several huge plastic containers packed leftovers. After a round of thanks yous and farewells, Sami and Finn departed and made it back to the Mini-Cooper. As soon as they were on the road, Finn rolled his window down, loosened his tie, and undid the top few buttons of his shirt.

“Wanna turn the AC on?” Sami asked.

“I like the breeze,” Finn mumbled. “Sorry for passing out on you.”

“I’m surprised that you were able to stand, after packing away that much food and alcohol.”

“I’m Irish, I can handle m’drink fine t’ank you very much, Mr. Zayn.”

“So sorry to doubt you, Mr. Balor.” Sami snorted, then his expression softened. “By the way, it’s fine.”

“What’s fine?”

“That you passed out. I don’t mind.”

“Ah. Well, glad we’ve established that.”

“What was it that you said a while back? ‘Don’t let the attitude of our industry keep you from being human first and foremost’?”

“Did I say that? That’s pretty good.”

“Something like that, anyway. I kind of like...thought about that a lot and applied that to life, y’know? It makes living less uncomfortable, less weird.”

“Wow, I’m so wise.” Finn beamed proudly.

“Sure thing, Finn.”

“By the way, if you wanna crash at my place, since the whole car thing…”

“It’s a mile and a half walk home, I’ll be OK.”

“Nuh, don’t be walking around late at night ‘round here. What if you get jumped?”

“I fight people for a living, I can handle myself.”

“Sami, you can’t get airborne on the streets, what’ll you do? Have you ever wrestled a knife?”

“What like...a guy with a knife, or just a knife?”

“...both?”

“I cannot say that I’ve done either of those things. But I am getting pretty tired after having this debate, so maybe I’ll stay at your place after all.”

“Great! We can go to the gym together in the morning!”

“Fuckin’ A, Finn.”

When they got to the apartment, Finn disappeared into his bedroom and then reappeared with several pillows and significantly less articles of clothing on as he was prone to doing when he was at home, then sat opposite of Sami on the sectional.

“You sleeping out here as well?” Sami asked as he grabbed a pillow and laid back.

“Too warm in the bedroom. Also I haven’t drank like that since I left home, so I wanna lay on my side and have a solid surface to support my back as I do.”

“You didn’t even drink that much.”

“Big talk, comin’ from a guy that doesn’t drink at all.”

“Fair enough.” They laid there in the still of the night, and as Sami’s eyelids grew heavy and his breathing slowed down, Finn’s laughter disrupted the silence. Sami propped himself up and peered in the dark to look at Finn. “What’s so funny.”

“Nothing!”

“Finn.” There was another giggle.

“Sami, do you think...we’re caught in a bad bromance?”

“OK three things: Number 1, you’re definitely drunk. Number 2, why do you have Lady Gaga stuck in your head?”

“I don’t know, I think I heard her on the radio earlier! And Jason said that we were ‘bromantic’ today and I’ve been thinking about it since then.”

“OK, fine. And Number 3, we have a good bromance. A healthy, supportive bromance. How dare you suggest otherwise and also bring wordplay into this.” A few more giggles piped up from the other side of the couch, then died down and sleep finally overtook both men.

The stakes at the next NXT live event had never been higher for Sami’s career, and he only had himself to blame for escalating the match into one where he would have to leave if he didn’t win. To make matters even worse, he hadn’t had a conversation with Adrian since this whole debacle started, and he hated himself for letting his pride possibly interfere with their friendship.

Before everything went live, Sami was able to catch up with Kevin, who would be opening the show. The two embraced tightly, and Sami whispered “we made it” to him. Kevin laughed, called him a dork, and readied himself for his match. Sami watched it with anticipation, and found himself mostly unphased by his huge friend’s brutality against a pitiful CJ Parker.

So far, Sami hadn’t seen Finn. They had gone to work separately, which was an abnormality, and normally they’d at least give each other their best wishes before each other’s matches. Sami started to worry that maybe Finn’s nerves had gotten the better of him, and so he started asking various co-workers and staff if they had seen him recently; so far, no one had seen Finn, so Sami started to make his way over to the restrooms, just in case things were bad enough that stress vomiting could be involved. Before he was able to reach them, he came across Hideo, who was stretching in preparation for his upcoming match.

“Hi Hideo! Good luck out there tonight!” Sami greeted.

“You too, Sami.” Hideo glanced up, his gaze distant, and Sami felt terrible for bothering him while he seemed so focused.

“By the way, have you seen Finn around?”

Hideo nodded, his attention still seemed distant and focused somewhere over Sami’s shoulder. “Yeah.”

Sami sighed, not wanting to disrupt Hideo any further, but still in need of more information. As he opened his mouth to try to get more specifics, he felt the distinct sensation of hot breath down the back of his neck and shivered, followed by a low, “Hey.”

Now turned around to see who was creeping on him, Sami was face-to-face with the most bizarre thing that he had ever personally witnessed. Red, black, and white paint enveloped the face and entire upper torso, and there were strips of leather and cloth dangling from the head and wrists. And teeth, SO many sets of jagged teeth. “Finn?!”

“What do you think? You like?” Finn asked, but his tone of voice was different; it was low and throaty, verging on guttural, instead of being soft and almost gentle, and Sami shivered again.

“That’s...holy shit, it’s Balor, isn’t it? This is what you were drawing. This is why...you didn’t debut with the paint. You were waiting for this.”

“Mhm,” Finn nodded, which caused the painted teeth to gnash, and Sami couldn’t tear his eyes away from his throat.

“I’d wish you luck, but you won’t need it. You’re definitely gonna win with this.”

“Thanks, mate. See you ‘round.” Finn joined Hideo’s side, and the two took their places near the curtains that led to the ramp. Sami found a vacant monitor and watched The Ascension file in, followed shortly after by Hideo, and then the lights went out in the NXT arena. A faint red light pulsed, and Sami couldn’t tell if the sound of a heart beating was his own or part of the entrance. A guitar squeal pierced the eerie atmosphere, fog rolled in, and when Finn rose up the audience erupted in screams and cheers. As promised, it was something that they had never seen before in NXT, and Sami desperately wished that he could have witnessed this moment live and not on a monitor.

It wasn’t surprising that The Ascension lost, since there was absolutely no way that anyone could have prepared for that exhibition. When Hideo and Finn returned backstage, co-workers and interviewers had swarmed the pair; Sami had wanted to join the throng and give his congratulations, but his match was coming up soon and he couldn’t afford any distractions, as his career now depended on the results of this night.

Once Sasha and Charlotte's incredible match concluded, the video package for events that lead up to the NXT title match played, and a crewmember told Sami that he’d be on in less than two minutes. Butterflies thundered in Sami’s stomach, and the unreadable look that he had received from Adrian only intensified them. The familiar stirrings of anxiety kicked in, and Sami’s instinct was to take off and avoid this altogether, but from his left he heard someone loudly call, “SAMI!”

Sami instinctively shot a look in the direction of the voice, knowing it was a bad idea with less than 15 seconds to go, but suddenly didn’t care about any of that when he saw Finn waving and running over to him, painted face and torso now totally smeared, and cupping his mouth as he hollered, “KICK HIS FUCKING ARSE! Also, hi Adrian!”

Sami grinned, gave Finn a thumbs up, and before he had the chance to say anything his music had hit and he was off to the ring. There was definitely an air of nervous energy, but the crowd was devoted to Sami and boosted his morale, and ultimately was perhaps the edge that he needed against Adrian. Their battle was ferocious, both men equal in skill, but Sami was able to channel the confidence that everyone had invested in him and found the strength to finally put Adrian away and win. Friends, co-workers, and for some reason Tyler Breeze, rushed out from backstage and lifted Sami up in celebration as he clutched the title. As they placed him back down, Adrian came out and shook his hand, and Sami was elated that they finally had made up. Then Kevin Owens approached and the two hugged, Sami rambled and alternated between “I did it. We did it. We’re here.”

In his barely coherent state, he recalled what Kevin had said earlier that year, “We’ll see what happens when Sami Zayn gets the NXT title”, but felt silly for his momentary suspicion and attributed it to being overly emotional. Besides, Kevin wasn’t holding a chair.

As it turned out, he didn’t need a chair at all.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Nah, I...you know what, I knew something like that would happen. OK so like, I didn’t KNOW, I’m not psychic, but I felt that it would. I’m not surprised by any of this.” Sami cleared his throat and looked into Finn’s eyes, so sympathetic, yet so resolute, and they reminded Sami of storm clouds rolling through a clear blue sky. “Y’know, I’m in the market for a new best friend now, after that.”
> 
> “Oh, we weren’t already?” Finn sounded wounded, but then grinned playfully.
> 
> “Well I mean you never filled out the application. You can’t just waltz into my life and cut to the front of the line.”
> 
> “I’d like to think that bringing the new champ his title after everyone thought that he was actually murdered on live TV helps my case.”

The last thing that Sami remembered before everything went dark was going airborne, followed by a wet crunching noise. A steady beeping noise stirred him awake, and when he opened his eyes, the blinding white lights and sterile stench of his surroundings only disoriented him further. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a blurry figure that became clearer as they approached his bed. A nurse.

“Mr. Zayn, are you awake?”

“Hm? Yeah...yeah. Is this the hospital?”

“Yes, you were transported here after an altercation, and you were unconscious. Tilt your head up please.” The nurse pulled out a small flashlight and pulled down Sami’s eyelid to examine his pupil. “Looks good, but we’re concerned that you may have a concussion, but our neurologist won’t be here until the morning to perform an MRI, so we’d like to keep you overnight. You also had blood trickling from your ear when you arrived, so we took x-rays to determine if your skull is fractured, and the doctor is reviewing those now.”

“Oh. Thank you.” Sami sighed heavily, looked down at himself, and couldn’t tell if the blood on his shoulder was his or Kevin’s. He felt grimy and wanted nothing more than to take a shower and change out of his pants, but his head had started to ache and he didn’t want to move.

“By the way, there’s someone here for that’s been waiting for you, but it’s after hours so we can’t have them in the room unless you designate them to be your support person. Do you know a ‘Finn Balor’?”

“YES. Yes. He’s my support person, please bring him in here.” Sami pleaded, and hoped that he didn’t just put a huge burden on Finn to make medical decisions, in case something bad happened. The nurse nodded and left the room, and the five minutes of absence felt like an eternity. When Finn appeared, Sami felt like he was looking at some kind of ethereal creature, and tears sprung to his eyes when he saw him cradling the NXT title. “Finn.”

“Sami!” Finn dashed to the bedside, sat down on the edge of the mattress, and placed the title next to him. Bits of black and red paint were still on Finn’s neck, chin, and forehead, but Sami hardly noticed as he sat up and was pulled into a hug. Finn gently murmured, “Hey. How’re ya feelin’?”

“Eh, I’ve been better. I still have confetti on me, so I’m at least a little fabulous. How long have you been here?”

“I dunno, an hour maybe? I rushed here as soon as I found out where they took you. Hunter and William want you to stay overnight, since they’re worried about CTE.”

“Yeah, the nurse and I talked about it. You don’t have to stick around, though.”

“S’ok, I don’t mind. Looks like they got one of those big reclining chairs in here, so I’ll just hang out on that.”

“Thanks for holding onto this for me, by the way.” Sami motioned to the title.

“Congrats, mate, you earned it. Sorry about uh…”

“Nah, I...you know what, I knew something like that would happen. OK so like, I didn’t KNOW, I’m not psychic, but I felt that it would. I’m not surprised by any of this.” Sami cleared his throat and looked into Finn’s eyes, so sympathetic, yet so resolute, and they reminded Sami of storm clouds rolling through a clear blue sky. “Y’know, I’m in the market for a new best friend now, after that.”

“Oh, we weren’t already?” Finn sounded wounded, but then grinned playfully.

“Well I mean you never filled out the application. You can’t just waltz into my life and cut to the front of the line.”

“I’d like to think that bringing the new champ his title after everyone thought that he was actually murdered on live TV helps my case.”

“It’ll be considered in the reviewing process.” Sami then reached over and grabbed the television remote that was attached to the bed. “So, you wanna watch some shitty infomercials with me, since it’s so late and nothing else is gonna be on?”

“Sounds lovely.” The TV was turned on, and they sat in a comfortable silence and occasionally giggled at commercials for local lawyers with terrible comb-overs. Sami had expected Finn to have moved over to the chair by now, but he remained at the edge of the mattress, now leaning back with hands placed behind him to support his upper body. They had spent so much time together over the past few months and were such a natural fit, like two lost puzzle pieces that had gravitated towards one another, and Sami was curious as to what he had done to deserve such a wonderful person in his life. He studied the side of Finn’s face, which was completely focused on some hard-hitting anti-depressant ad, and then shifted his gaze down and back to Finn’s hands, one of which was now practically touching his own; Sami’s mouth went a little dry, and he wondered if he could get away with slipping his fingers underneath Finn’s, and why was it so hard to breathe now?

The cardiac monitor started to beep a little faster, and Finn spun around to look at the machine and then at Sami, his face a mix of concern and dread. “Are you OK? Do you need me to call a nurse?”

“I feel fine, I think...I’m starting to remember what happened earlier, and it’s probably raising my blood pressure. Maybe I should try to get some rest, my head sorta hurts. Could I be a pain and ask you to move over to the chair?”

“Say no more. You want me to turn the volume down so that you can sleep.”

“No, it’s fine as it is. Thank you.”

Finn had gotten up and made himself comfortable in the recliner, and Sami discreetly stretched his hand out to where Finn’s had been moments before, and traced the finger indents that were still fresh in the bedsheet.

According to the doctor, the x-rays indicated that there was no cranial fracture, and that the bleeding may have been due to a cut inside of the ear that Sami had received when his body hit the ground; the MRI came back clean as well, but it was recommended that Sami rest for a few days to mend. When Sami was discharged, Finn had brought him back home and had asked at least 20 times during the car ride how he felt and if he was OK to be by himself, and while every time Sami responded with “yes, I’m fine”, he was so touched by Finn’s concern.

They reached Sami’s apartment, and Finn had accompanied him inside just to make certain that he’d be able to get up the stairs. Again, he asked Sami if he needed anything, and Sami assured him that he didn’t and would call if he did. Sami set the NXT title on the couch, and Finn gave him the most warmhearted embrace that he could recall receiving in recent memory. Part of Sami wanted to protest and send Finn on his way, having wasted enough of his time, but instead he leaned in and grasped back, not wanting to be let go of and trying to figure out if Finn had always smelled this nice, like sandalwood and vanilla. Eventually, Finn pulled away, and Sami nervously laughed and told him to get going. After he was finally alone, he stripped himself of his pants, climbed into the shower, and let out a loud and long groan.

Despite all of the promos, all of the extra training, all of the encouragement, Sami couldn’t prevent Kevin’s threat from becoming a promise at NXT Rival, and two months later he found himself back in the hospital sans the NXT title. Finn had dutifully followed along, and again they both sat together on the bed, this time Finn had positioned himself cross-legged at the end of it and facing Sami while they played with a deck of cards that he had located earlier. There were no words of encouragement, just the occasional, “What a fucking asshole. Go fish.”

“What in the hell was I thinking? Giving him a title shot like that,” Sami lamented softy, and Finn looked up as he put his cards down.

“Nah, you got manipulated. Don’t stress about it much, awful people do awful things.”

“Sami Zayn can’t win the big one. Except for when he DOES win the big one, then he loses the big one faster than any previous NXT champion.”

“Sami Zayn is a good-hearted man that people admire and does his job, even if it’s a difficult one to perform. You did what you’re supposed to do as a champion, you’ll do it again.”

“Lose?”

“No, show up to work, have matches for the title. Unlike our current heavyweight champion.”

“Oof, don’t let him catch wind of that.”

“I’d just bring out da’demon.”

“You’d have to.” Sami laid back and stretched his legs out, brushing them against Finn’s knees. “This really sucks.”

"Is there anything I can do to help?" Finn looked so earnest, eyes wide and lips slightly pursed, and Sami lost his train of thought.

"I uh...don't know."

"Well if you need any-"

"Just stay here. With me."

"OK, yeah."

"I feel like I'm losing my fucking mind, and-"

"Sami."

"-and I just lost my best friend two months ago, and none of my other friends have confidence in me anymore and-"

"Sami, you're shaking." Finn crawled towards him, and extended his hand out.

"-and all I'm good for is letting everyone down." There was a deafening silence before tears streamed down Sami's face, and Finn grabbed him and held tight.

"No, no. No one's disappointed. C'mon Sami, it's gonna be alright."

"I'm so stupid, I don't deserve any of this."

"S'alright. You're not stupid. Breathe now." Eventually, Finn had gotten Sami to lay back and remained by his side in the hospital bed while he quietly broke down.

When Sami finally managed to pull himself together, the color of the sky was still a deep blue but had started to lighten in anticipation of dusk. Unaware of how much time had passed, he turned on his side to check on Finn and see if he was still awake, and found him fast asleep. For the first time since they had met, Sami had an opportunity to actually examine his friend. Finn was obviously handsome, something that Sami was well aware of and a fact that was agreed upon by the general populace, but up close...so close to that messy hair, that perfect amount of stubble, those dark circles under his eyes, and that mouth. Sami wondered how soft his hair felt. He wondered how soft his lips felt. Before his brain derailed further, he quickly turned around so that his back was facing Finn, consumed by guilt and unease as his heart crashed against his rib cage, and was thankful that he wasn’t hooked him up to a cardiac monitor this time.

Triple H had announced some time ago that NXT would be traveling to the Arnold Sports Festival in Colombus, Ohio, as their first set of shows outside of Florida, but things had been so hectic that the date seemed to approach from out of nowhere. Originally the room that Sami had booked was just for him and Finn, but Enzo would now be joining them since he needed a place to crash after Cass and Carmella hinted that they’d like some alone time, and Sami was more than happy to provide shelter for his friend. They checked into the hotel, brought their stuff upstairs, and went over sleeping arrangements since there were only two queen-sized beds between three people.

“We can probably get a cot up here, or I can sleep on the floor. I don’t mind, I’ve done it a million times before.” Sami offered.

“C’mon Sami, you booked it, and we ain’t in our teens anymore, crusin’ the circuit and crashing in bedbug infested motels. ‘Sides, sleepin’ on the floor’s bad for your back,” Enzo pointed out. “Aw fuck, guys I’m sorry if I screwed this all up.”

“Dude, no, it’s all good, you’re totally welcome here. Like, didn’t Cass and Carmella JUST start hooking up? Let ‘em get it out of their system.”

“Sami, you can share the bed with me, I don’t mind.” Finn chimed in.

“You sleep in your underwear.” Sami stated flatly.

“I don’t sleep in anything at all.” Enzo retorted with a shrug.

“OK, no one sleeps naked here. That’s the one rule I’m not budging on. Next time one of you jokers can book the room, then you can decide on the rules.” Sami heatedly replied.

“C’mon brother, ain’t you secure in your masculinity?” Enzo teased as he kicked his shoes off and made himself comfortable in one of the beds.

“‘Course I am, doesn’t mean that I want to see your dick flopping around within the confines of my temporary residence for the weekend. This is no longer up for discussion.” Sami huffed.

“So trunks’re fine, yeah?” Finn inquired, and Sami sighed deeply.

“Do whatever you want, Finn.”

No one could have anticipated just how successful NXT’s first appearance outside of Florida would be. The first day mostly consisted of panels and autograph sessions, and Sami’s line was easily the longest of any other NXT superstar; he found himself patiently explaining over and over again that he wasn’t medically cleared to have a match, and was surprised to find that he was the recipient of many slips of paper with phone numbers on them. He stayed as long as he physically was capable of doing so, far longer than he was scheduled for, but after several hours exhaustion took its toll and he finally departed from the booth. Once he got back to the room, he deposited all of the slips of paper into the trash bin, and crawled under the covers of one of the beds.

Just as the first stages of REM had kicked in and Sami could feel himself falling asleep, he stirred back to consciousness due to the sound door unlocking and opening, and then quickly slamming shut. Not in a social mood, he remained still and feigned slumber, and whoever it was in the room had rushed into the bathroom and turned on the faucet. However, once the distinct sound of gasping and a heavy ‘thud’ accompanied the running water, Sami sprung up and rushed over to the bathroom to check on the other occupant. The door had been propped open by a shoebox full of what looked like artwork of Balor.

“Finn, is that you?” Sami asked as he knocked on the door, and received dry heaving in response. “Dude, I’m coming in.”

The upper half of Finn’s body was sprawled across the opening of the toilet bowl, and when he looked back at Sami, his face was paler than usual. Sami grabbed an empty glass from the countertop, filled it with water, then crouched down next to Finn and rubbed his back. “Are you sick? What happened?”

“Sami,” Finn wheezed out, his voice raspy, then hung his head back over the toilet and attempted to vomit again. “There’s SO many fucking people here.”

“Oh.” Sami looked around helplessly, and offered the water to Finn once his head came back up. Finn took a sip, then his eyes widened, body trembled, and he was finally able to empty out the contents of his stomach into the bowl.

“Ah, there we go.” Finn chuckled self-deprecatingly, then reached up and pulled on the handle to flush. As his body weakly slumped to the side, Sami caught and held onto him to provide support. Finn rested the back of his head against crook of Sami’s neck, and they sat together on the bathroom floor for several minutes.

“You feeling better?” Sami asked, barely above a whisper.

“Tired,” Finn responded with a yawn.

“Was...was that an anxiety attack?” Sami had experienced his fair share of them, but never had one that escalated to the point of vomiting.

“Mhm. Wasn’t prepared to deal with these crowds.” There was another yawn, and Finn turned his head so that the side of his face was against Sami’s chest. “Can you help me get to bed?”

“Yeah, of course.” Sami slung Finn’s arm over his shoulders, then slowly lifted them both off of the floor. Cautiously, he moved the box with his foot, and managed to navigate a mostly dead-weight Finn around the room and into the bed that they were sharing. Once Finn had nestled in, Sami went back over to the box and picked it up off of the floor, then placed it over on the nightstand. “I’m gonna let Enzo know that we’re not gonna meet up with the rest of the gang tonight, OK?”

“Huh? You can go if you want, I should be good now.”

“Nah, I’m not feeling so hot myself. Let me know if you get hungry, I’ll order takeout.” Sami pulled his phone out of his pocket and sent Enzo a quick message to inform him that they would be absent from dinner, and Enzo sent back a reply that conveyed his sympathy, which also contained every emoticon possible. After, he set his phone to silent, and crawled into the bed. “By the way, those pictures are really cool.”

“Oh, the fanart? I love it, it’s the best thing to receive from people. Just wish my nerves weren’t utter shit.”

“Don’t think about that right now, just try to get some rest.”

“Alright.” The room was still for a little while, and Sami had thought that Finn had perhaps finally fallen asleep, but realized he was mistaken when it felt as though the entire bed was convulsing and Finn started kicking around.

“Holy shit, are you OK?” Sami sat up, now panicked. There was a grunt, and then a pair of pants and a t-shirt flew across the room and hit the wall opposite wall. “Goddammit, Finn.”

“I’m good now.”

Sami rolled over and away from Finn, wrapped his arms around himself, and tightly shut his eyes.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I take my role as the designated support person very seriously. And it’s not different at all. You were there for me when I felt alone and...well, scared, honestly. I gotta return the favor somehow.”

Sami couldn’t have anticipated the level of heartache that he’d endure over the next few months.

It started when Finn lost his number one contender spot against Kevin, and at least it gave both men another thing it common, but things further spiraled after Kevin had continued to come out and spew vile things about Sami in front of the NXT crowd. And then there was the Montreal episode of RAW.

Sami’s appearance to capture the US Title had actually been in the works for weeks, but the only people that knew was himself, Bret Hart, Triple H, and Vince McMahon. As far as everyone in NXT knew, Sami was visiting his family up in Canada for a few days, and minutes before the match started he had sent Finn a text, telling him to put on RAW. Bret went out and introduced him to the audience, and time slowed down as Sami felt like he was in a dream.

The irony was that it was Sami’s enthusiasm, his zest for life, is what was his undoing, and he had hurt himself before the match even started. He felt a pop in his shoulder, and he looked across the ring at John Cena and realized just how large he was in person, and suspected right then that he wasn’t destined to win another big one. Still, he’d try. This was his debut on RAW, and even if he had messed it up entirely, he could put on a stellar match.

Another hospital visit, another MRI, and Finn was in another country, roughly 1,300 miles away. What made it so much worse, so much more bitter, was that this time the doctors couldn’t tell him that he was overall fine and just needed to rest. There was talk of surgery now. Sami couldn’t even cry this time, instead he wallowed in numbness with the occasional throb in his shoulder. His phone continued to light up with messages from concerned co-workers, and he assured every one of them that he was fine, then eventually stopped responding altogether. His mother visited and went so far as to suggest that he maybe stop and come home after all of these recent injuries, and he would kiss her, lie and tell her that he was fine; the look that she gave him made him feel like his heart had been ripped right out of his chest.

As much as he loved and missed his family every waking moment, as soon as he was discharged he arranged to get back to Florida and get back to work, itching to prove everyone wrong. Finn and Bayley had met him at the airport, and both hugged him so tightly that he never wanted to leave ever again. They told him how proud they were of him, then caught him up to speed with how everyone was doing, and when they brought up how much of a dickhead Kevin had been lately, Sami laughed and said something to the effect of “Man, fuck that guy,” but his heart ached as soon as the words left his mouth. He wanted answers so badly, and when he tried to get them out of Kevin, the result was scathing remarks and more horrid promises; Sami knew that he should have never brought up his son, and hated himself a little more than he already did for such a low blow.

Ending the third Takeover in a row with being placed on a stretcher, the only thing that ran through Sami’s head was “dammit” as he felt his body getting ready to pass out again. He knew where he’d wake up, and he hated it, but before he lost total consciousness, he relayed to an EMT that Finn was his support person. When he woke up, Finn was in the recliner and watching a soccer game on the TV, streaks of paint still on his neck and face. Instead of alerting him to the fact that he was awake, Sami just observed him from a distance, and would have been content to do so for a while had his shoulder not started throbbing again and caused him to give a sharp cry. Finn turned around, and approached the bed.

“We’ve gotta stop meeting like this,” Sami laughed weakly, and then cried out again in pain. “I feel like I’m on fire.”

“Hey,” Finn sat down so close to Sami, his eyes so impossibly blue, so full of concern, and Sami tore himself away from that gaze that made him want to share every single secret that he had locked away. A hand was placed on his forearm and Sami stared at it, goosebumps started forming, and his brain raced at a thousand miles an hour he tried to think of any possible way of escaping all of this; he concluded that he never should have made Finn his support person. “Sami, they’re talking about surgery. They’re saying that there isn’t any other option.”

“Yeah, I...they talked about it in Montreal, too. Guess I can’t escape it forever.”

“I’m gonna go tell them that you’re up. They’re gonna probably give you some pain meds for now, just to get you through the next few days. There’s also a whole list of stuff that we’re gonna need to do to prepare, and-”

“Wait, ‘we’re’?”

“I figured that I’d be helping you out, yeah?”

“No, Finn, you’ve already done WAY too much. I’ve inconvenienced you so much these past few months, don’t...c’mon, don’t do this.”

“Sami, remember when I first moved here and, barely knowing me, you helped me get my furniture and basically my life set up?”

“Finn, this is way different. This doesn’t even compare. I can’t ask this of you, you can’t do this.”

“I take my role as the designated support person very seriously. And it’s not different at all. You were there for me when I felt alone and...well, scared, honestly. I gotta return the favor somehow.”

“Dude.”

“Sami, you asked me not to shut you out a while back. Is it fair for you to do the same to me?”

“...No, I guess it isn’t.”

“Then let me do this.” There was a reassuring squeeze on his forearm, and Sami knew that he couldn’t deny his friend anything.

“OK. Go get the doctor, let’s see what we’re dealing with here.”

The doctor had gone over pre- and post-operation instructions, they scheduled a day for the surgery, and after Finn had dropped Sami off at his apartment, he took a list with him that contained all of the items necessary for recovery and went out to purchase them. Since Sami had given him a spare key, he wasn’t worried about whether or not the narcotics would render him useless when trying to let Finn in and out. Sami took his first dose of medication, and shortly after felt as light as a feather and all traces of pain were gone. At some point Finn had come back, and Sami heard rustling in the kitchen, but he couldn’t even greet him in his current state. As far as he could tell, he had slipped in and out of sleep, but found himself a little more alert when he heard the door open and a distinctly feminine voice from somewhere in the apartment. He looked up, and looming over him was Finn and Bayley.

“Hey guys,” Sami slurred, and he felt like he was grinning from ear to ear as he looked up at two of his favorite people.

“How’re you feeling, Sami?” Bayley asked.

“High as a kite, Bayley.”

“Alright, that’s good. We’re gonna go do a bunch of cooking now so that you’ll have a bunch of stuff to eat when you’re recovering and you won’t starve.”

“Thanks buddy. You guys are great. I love you guys.”

“We love you, too, Sami.” Bayley smiled and ruffled his hair before they both disappeared into the kitchen.

“Finn!” Sami called out, and Finn peaked his head around the corner to see what he needed.

“What’s up?”

“Remember how I said that I would be reviewing applications for a new best friend? You’re hired.”

“You’re only hiring me now? I thought that I was already hired!”

“Nah, t’was an internship, but you did good enough that we’d like to extend the offer of full time employment to you.”

“Sami, what are you even talking about?”

“I dunno. You’re good, though. So good.”

Over the next few days, Finn had relocated all of his necessities to Sami’s apartment since the doctor had suggested that he not be alone during the first week post operation, but ideally he should have someone around for 12 days. Sami had initially protested, but Finn had shut him down quickly with the same argument of “I’m the designated support person, my job is to support you”, and Sami couldn’t argue anymore. After the first few nights on the pull-out bed, Sami noticed that Finn was a little slower to get up in the morning, and far achier than he had ever seen him before.

“Finn, you look like death, and we both know that the couch bed isn’t comfortable. Why don’t I take it and you can sleep in the bed?” Sami suggested.

“Nuh-uh, you’re in a lot of discomfort and you’re gonna need the support. I’m OK, I’m tough as nails.” Finn retorted, then stretched and winced at the audible creaks and pops from his spine. Sami sighed, and knew what he would regret what he was about to say next.

“Look, why don’t we share the bed, then? You’re not gonna last for the next two weeks on that thing, and this way we can both get a good night’s sleep.”

“Yeah? Are you actually alright with that? I don’t want to intrude or anything.”

“Psh, totally. We’re just two bros looking out for one another, right?”

“Sure, then if you’re fine with it, I’m fine with it.”

“I’m totally fine with it.”

“Great, then it’s fine.”

“Fine.”

Sami was anything but fine. He laid on his side, yet again as close to the edge of the bed as he could get without falling off and with his back towards Finn. Between being physically broken and trying to handle how his insides felt twisted from any form of physical contact, or glances, or now just something as simple as being in Finn’s presence, Sami wanted to go comatose for a long while so that he didn’t have to deal with the mess that currently was his life. He knew that he’d eventually have to confront whatever had been internally brewing for months and months, but maybe dealing with ulcers that came from the stress of ignoring it would be easier than daring to acknowledge that it existed. As he mentally cursed himself for this steady descent into a territory that he never wanted any part of in the first place, fingers softly pressed into his arm to get his attention, and from across the bed Finn had murmured “g’night, Sami.”

And for a brief moment, nothing and everything hurt all at once.

The surgery was successful, and Sami was so drugged up that he couldn’t recall being discharged, or the ride home, and instead just relished in the sensation of fresh air and sunshine and Finn’s voice, even though he couldn’t comprehend what was being said. Occasionally he caught his own name, with that soft “a” that he enjoyed so much, and would smile warmly. After a few days, he was less disoriented and a little more independent, but when Finn couldn’t be around Bayley would often come by and substitute for him.

A little over a week after the surgery, Finn had to go to a meeting regarding the upcoming Beast in the East special, and Bayley had to step out, so Sami was by himself for once and was content with the temporary solitude. As he had settled into his throne of pillows on the couch and turned the TV on, the doorbell rang, and Sami thought that maybe Bayley forgot the key that she and Finn now shared. He got up and pressed the buzzer to let her in, then returned to the couch. After a few minutes, there was a knock on the door.

“It’s open!” Sami called out, and he heard the door slowly open and close. The quiet was a little concerning, as Bayley would normally start chatting before the door even opened, and Finn would usually greet him by now. And then a large figure entered the living room, and Sami stood up.

“Kevin? What the FUCK?!” Sami looked around for anything he could arm himself with, and yet somehow always knew that Kevin would be the one to come by and end his life. However, Kevin didn’t look particularly intimidating as he held a bouquet of flowers and a balloon that read “Get Well Soon”.

“Heya Sami,” Kevin put the flowers down on the coffee table and let go of the balloon. “These are from my wife and kids, thought I’d bring them by.”

“There are delivery services, y’know. Where you wouldn’t have to come by at all.” The last part of that felt so venomous as he spat it out, but Sami didn’t care. He was probably about to die, defenseless in his own apartment, and didn’t want to go gently into that good night

“Look, I came by to-”

“To what, Kev? To hurt me more? To taunt me? To, heaven forbid, apologize?”

“I wanted to talk.”

“No.” Sami sat back down and rubbed his temple. “There’s nothing to talk about. You made your point loud and clear.”

Kevin sighed heavily. “This was a stupid fucking idea. I’m gonna use your bathroom and then get going.”

Sami didn’t acknowledge him, and secretly wished that Kevin would put him out of his misery once and for all. After Kevin had finished, he stepped back out and started to make his way back over to the door.

“I’m sorry,” Sami softly broke the silence. “I’m sorry that I brought Owen up. You weren’t giving me an answer, and-”

“It’s fine,” Kevin gave a dismissive wave, then inhaled through his nostrils, like he did when something was on his mind. “By the way, you uh, seeing someone?”

“No, why?”

“The extra toothbrush and stick of deodorant on the sink.”

“Oh, that’s Finn’s. He’s helping me out while I recover.”

“Ah, you two have gotten pretty close over the past few months. You know I’m gonna kill him in Japan, right? Like he’s gonna die, and that demon doesn’t stand a chance. You’re gonna need a new friend.”

“I’m sure he’ll be fine.” Sami felt something well up in his chest. “Besides, can’t do much worse than you, can I?”

“The hell you can’t. If he survives, that prick’s gonna turn on you eventually. You’re not THAT stupid, you’ve seen his shit over there. I know because you wouldn’t shut up about him joining NXT when you were trying to get me to join.”

“He’s not going to do that. Fuck you for saying that, you toxic asshole.”

“Why are you defending him? You even remarked what an amazing jackass he was. What are you, in love with him or someth-”

“I DON’T FUCKING KNOW!” Kevin’s eyes widened, taken aback, and Sami covered his own mouth with his free hand, as if that would magically retract his outburst.

“Sami?” Kevin’s tone of voice changed from snark to something almost tender, and Sami shut his eyes as tightly as he could. “I didn’t mean-”

“I think you should leave, Kevin.”

“Yeah.”

As Kevin left, Sami could hear Bayley’s voice in the hall, greeting his former friend with a nervous, “Oh, hi there Kevin. See you at work tomorrow?”

When she finally entered the apartment, she locked the door behind her and practically sprinted over to check on Sami. “What the heck was that?! Are you OK?”

“No...yes. I’m fine. He wanted to talk, I didn’t want to, so he left.” His tone of voice lacked conviction, and he knew it. Bayley took a seat next to him and stared at him for a moment.

“Sami, you’re sweating and you’re pale. You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“Well, I did think that I was going to die for a moment.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“No, I really don’t.”

Worry never left her face, but she nodded in understanding and dropped it.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Have you ever just felt something about someone, and knew that it was a bad idea but you couldn’t help it? And you’d give literally everything to make things go back to normal, but the more that you tried to ignore it or make it go away, the stronger it got? And it ruined your entire life and kept you up at night?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bit of a warning, there's mention of Lubo in this chapter.

Physical therapy had started to pay off, and after a few weeks Sami didn’t need anyone monitoring him at home; while he loved having his two best friends around, it was nice to have some time to himself. Bayley, and occasionally Enzo or Cass, had taken over a lot of the transportation duty, since Finn had to prepare for Beast in the East against Kevin and now didn’t have a whole lot of spare time. Sometimes, late at night, Finn would text Sami and ask if he wanted him to come over or needed any help, and Sami always declined. Sami would rather endure multiple beatdowns from Kevin before admitting that he missed waking up next to Finn every morning, and that he hadn’t washed his pillowcases or blanket yet because they still smelled like him.

Bayley had spent the night before ‘Beast in the East’ over at Sami’s, since her fiance didn’t want to wake up at 4am and it was always more fun to watch live specials with a friend. It hadn’t been difficult for Sami to get up that early, since he frequent woke up throughout the night due to being in pain, but he had never seen Bayley so groggy and lifeless and it was simultaneously adorable and amusing as she tried to convince him that she was totally awake and ready to go. Before they went to sleep, Sami had programed his coffee maker to start brewing around 3:50am, and with his free hand he brought a mug over for Bayley, then made another trip and brought one over for himself. Together they cheered for Neville, and although he didn’t win, they agreed that it was still a fantastic match. Sami was happy to see Paige, and as the women’s match ended and the match against Brock Lesnar was about to get started, Bayley had asked, “How do think Finn’s gonna do?”

“Honestly, I want to believe that he’s got this, but when Kevin was over he just...wouldn’t let up about beating him. I don’t know if Kev’s losing a grip on himself because of his loss against Cena, but he’s really dangerous when his pride’s wounded.”

“Is that why he was over here? To gloat about his match against Finn?”

“No, he said that he was dropping stuff off from his family to me, and that he wanted to talk.”

“But you didn’t. You said you didn’t, anyway.”

“We yelled at each other for a hot minute, but that’s not exactly having a conversation.” Sami bit his bottom lip as he recalled what he had shouted before Kevin had left, and the sensation of pent-up frustration felt as though it had pressurized in a dangerous way. He looked over at Bayley, and knew that he needed to get it out of his system, and she was probably the right person to relay something of this gravity to. “Hey Bayley? Can I tell you something?”

“You can tell me anything, Sami.” She was so chipper, and he swallowed hard

“It can’t leave this couch.”

“Oh.” Bayley turned her attention away from the TV and looked directly at Sami. “You got it. What’s up?”

Sami shut his eyes and was quiet for a minute, trying to figure out how to translate emotions into words and then string those words into coherent sentences, then exhaled. “Have you ever just felt something about someone, and knew that it was a bad idea but you couldn’t help it? And you’d give literally everything to make things go back to normal, but the more that you tried to ignore it or make it go away, the stronger it got? And it ruined your entire life and kept you up at night?”

“Yeah, I have. And I mean, I think most people that have interacted with other people have experienced that at one point in their lives, in some magnitude anyway.”

“Well, this is the one of the few times that I’ve ever had to deal with it. And not like, a little kid crush kinda way. Like, in a ‘I’m drowning and I can’t escape the undertow’ kind of way. And I don’t want to be like this, Bayley.” Sami could feel his throat tightening as he stumbled over words.

“Can...can I ask-”

“It’s Finn.”

“Oh wow.” The match between Brock and Kofi had ended, and it was time for Kevin and Finn’s match, and Sami could barely bring himself to look up at the TV. “Have you talked to him about any of this?”

“NO! No. I can’t. He’s my best friend, and our friendship is perfect, and I can’t mess it all up just because I…because this happened. I don’t even want to be like this, I want to just be friends and not think about him and not…” Sami trailed off, his mind now foggy and chest aching. “Kevin was being a real piece and asked if I was in love with Finn, like as a joke, not even a little serious. But he had also been goading me the entire time, and I snapped at him and very seriously said that I didn’t know if I was, and...I dunno, I told him to leave after. But until that moment, I had been avoiding actively thinking about it, let alone said something out loud about any of it.”

“Man, Kevin’s just not a good guy, huh?”

“See, that’s the thing, Kevin IS a good person.”

“Uh, what?”

“He is. He’s complicated. Kevin is a great husband, a great father, and a lot of glaring negative character flaws as well. And yeah, he’s overly aggressive and needlessly ruthless when he fights, and he’s SO rude, but that’s what he gets paid to do; I’m not defending his actions by any stretch of the imagination, but he’s being that way so that he can ensure that he can support his family. But he also loves animals, and he’s not homophobic or sexist or anything like that. In fact, he might be the only person that actually uh...knows...how I am.”

At some point, Bayley had grabbed the controller paused the match before it had even started, her attention now 110% focused on Sami. He laughed softly, then asked, “Wanna hear something kind of gross?”

“Yeah, a little,” Bayley admitted, and Sami laughed harder.

“So maybe 8 or 9 years ago, I think it was like right before Kev got married, I had just finished a match and I was approached by this guy backstage...iunno, probably my age at the time? Anyway, he asked if I wanted to get outta there with him, and-”

“Wait, did you know him?”

“Nah, it was just like a random thing. I had always sorta wanted to...I was curious. Like, REALLY curious. And I was all hopped up on the rush of adrenaline, and he was pretty good looking I guess, like a cute emo kid, so I was all ‘Sure, why not?’, and we decided to go back to my motel room. I was sharing it with Kev but he was on a date with his now-wife, so I thought it’d be safe. But this guy wanted me to wear the mask when-”

“NO!” Bayley’s hands covered her mouth.

“Yeah, and-”

“Did you?!”

“I did. I hadn’t had the chance to take it off ‘cause he asked me like LITERALLY after my match, and the motel was right across the street, so I just put my hoodie on and we ran over. And this guy that I didn’t even know his name, maybe it was Dustin or something? We got onto the bed and he started going down on me, and Kevin fucking comes in the room like right as I’m about to finish-”

“SAMI!”

“I know! And Kevin and I lock eyes right at that moment, and then he just walks out. I ended up kicking what’s-his-name out because I’m mortified and so afraid that I’m gonna get my ass beaten. The indies are so weird, because everyone spouts all this homophobic garbage, but over half of those guys have sucked a dick at some point.”

“Oh my god, Sami.”

“So later on, I look at my phone and I’ve got 5 missed calls from Kevin, and a few voicemails as well, and they’re all basically just ‘Hey, call me when you get this’. And I finally get the nerve to call him, and he told me to meet him at the Tim Horton’s down the street, so I do, figuring that I was about to get jumped, but it’s just him in the lobby at 2am, and he orders a coffee for me, and we sit there quietly for a little bit. Then eventually he said, ‘Hey man, look, if you gotta talk I’ll listen, but all I ask is could you maybe just let me know ahead of time when you plan on bringing someone back to the room?’. And that was it. He never made fun of me for it, never really brought it up again, and was really respectful whenever I had a ‘guest’ over. Not that it was a frequent thing, anyway.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. As it turns out, I don’t really care much for random hook-ups? It took me a few years to figure that out, like I tried to ‘normalize’ myself or whatever ‘cause so many guys brag about getting laid and maybe I thought that if I kept trying I’d get into it, but I guess I’m not like that. I just sporadically develop feelings for friends which ultimately threatens to ruin everything.”

“That’s all...wow.”

“It’s something, alright. You wanna watch the match now?”

“Are you up to it?”

“I think I’ll manage.”

Bayley unpaused the TV and both tried not to laugh when Kevin threw the bouquet. Sami shook his head and remarked, “OK so maybe he’s not such a good person.”

As the match progressed, Bayley watched Sami’s face, the awe and affection so potent whenever the camera focused on Finn, and her heart ached for him. She gently touched his good shoulder, and said, “Y’know, it’s OK to feel like that about a friend, even if the other person doesn’t feel the same exact way. Love and relationships aren’t things defined in black and white, and you shouldn’t feel guilty for something beyond your control. I think as long as you don’t let that impact what you guys already have, you’ll get through this.”

“Thanks, Bayley,” Sami responded as he squeezed her hand.

On ride to the airport to pick up Finn, Bayley had suggested to Sami that she could try to talk to him and see how he felt, but Sami had shot her down as soon as she finished her sentence, then thanked her and apologized for being so curt. “I really don’t want to do anything that has the faintest possibility of jeopardizing our friendship. He’s too important for that.”

When Finn arrived in the baggage claim, Bayley let Sami approach him first, and they held onto one another for an extended amount of time. Sami whispered how proud he was of Finn, how amazing he looked in the oni paint, how the whole thing was perfect, and Finn tiredly nodded along. Sami could tell that he was exhausted and was ready to collapse from jet lag, but the way that Finn’s body leaned into his own for support made him calculate the risk vs reward factor of possibly injuring his shoulder again in case they both fell over. Eventually Bayley did join them, probably also calculating the same thing, helped Finn with his bags, and ushered them to the car.

The ride back was mostly quiet, as Bayley and Sami didn’t want to bother Finn as he nodded off. At some point on the highway, Sami felt a tug at his shirtsleeve, and since it was the bad side and he couldn’t turn to look behind him, he pulled down the sun visor and looked into the little mirror, and his eyes met Finn’s in it.

“Sami!” Finn exclaimed, now seemingly boosted from a second wind of energy. “Our birthdays are coming up! What are we gonna do?”

“Well, I’m going to be coming back from San Diego Comic-Con on mine, so I probably won’t be around much. When’s your’s again?”

“The 25th.”

“Right.” Sami paused to think “Wait, didn’t you move in at the end of July, like right around then? Finn, did we seriously meet the day after your birthday?”

“Yeah, we did.”

“Why didn’t you tell me back then?”

“I dunno, I was tired and that seems like a weird thing to spring on someone when you first meet them. Now that you’ve mentioned it, though, an even more important date than birthdays is coming up.”

“What would that be?”

“The one year anniversary of our bromance.”

“Oh yeah, that’s definitely more important.”

Finn beamed brightly before he sunk back into the car seat and dozed off again.

What Sami didn’t realize is that Finn was dead serious about doing something to commemorate when they first met, and was genuinely shocked when his best friend showed up early the next morning to his apartment with a “Happy Anniversary” balloon, a fruit platter, and a Blu-Ray boxset of the ‘Rambo’ series; he couldn’t even be upset that he was woken up so early, and found it endearing that Finn had gone out of his way to do something so silly and thoughtful and wonderful.

“I’m sorry that we can’t really go out and do anything fun because I’m still all broken,” Sami frowned as Finn popped the first disc into the PS3.

“Why’re you apologizing? This is plenty fun, we get to see Sylvester Stallone ruin some hooligans’ day.”

“Well when you put it that way…”

Somewhere amidst John Rambo’s carnage, Finn had casually stated, “That’s gonna be what it’s like when Kevin and I go at it in Brooklyn.”

“How are you feeling about that, by the way?” Sami’s attention turned away from the TV and faced Finn.

“Nervous, I guess. I’ve never been in a ladder match before.”

“WHAT?!” Sami exclaimed, lifted up the remote and paused the movie. “You agreed to fight him in a ladder match AND YOU’VE NEVER EVEN DONE ONE BEFORE? Finn, you can’t be serious.”

“Sami, the match has been announced, no real going back now.”

Sami felt his stomach start to turn, and he grabbed Finn’s arm to get his focus and try to illustrate the seriousness of the situation. “No, don’t do this. He’s hellbent on ruining you, and we both know how dangerous he is. Please don’t do this.”

Finn loosened Sami’s grip and held his hand for a moment, running his thumb over the knuckles, then gave it a reassuring squeeze. “It’s going to be fine, Sami. I’m not underestimating him, I know how he is. But he’s distracted by his taste of the main roster, and even though he wants a title, any title, he’s got his eyes locked on moving forward. He doesn’t want to get back the NXT title as bad as I want to hold onto it, and I’m sure that he doesn’t want to actually be back in developmental where everyone hates him and his paycheck isn’t as good.”

“I don’t think it’s as much about the title anymore as much as it is his pride.” Sami retorted, and tried not to look disappointed when Finn let go of his hand. “I’ve dealt with him when he’s like this several times, and it’s always a bloodbath. Except now you’re throwing huge pieces of metal hardware in the mix.”

“Huge pieces of metal hardware that I’ll also have access to. C’mon, let’s not talk about this right now, let’s just finish the film, yeah?”

“Sure.” Sami nodded and unpaused the movie, and the feeling in his gut remained strong. A few minutes later, Finn was occupied with a box on the end table.

“Is this you? Is this your new figure?” Finn sounded so excited a he flipped over the box and examined what was written on the back. “Look at the title! This is so cool.”

“It’s not officially on the market yet, I think it comes out in a few weeks, but Mattel gave me a few when I was at Comic-Con.”

“Can I open it? I wanna look at it.”

“Finn, you can have it if you want.”

Before Sami could even finish his sentence, the cardboard lip was lifted up and Finn had pulled out the plastic packaging that housed the figure. “This is the best, it looks just like you! They even painted on the chest hair.”

“Isn’t it something? Wrestling figures have come such a long way in the past few years.”

“I’m gonna have to cancel my pre-order now.” Finn remarked as he moved the joints to make them more flexible, then started to try out different poses.

“You pre-ordered it?” Sami couldn’t even hide his astonishment, and Finn looked at him with a puzzled expression.

“‘Course I did. They made an action figure of m’best mate, you think I’m not gonna have that on the shelves, goin’ on sweet adventures with all the other toys?” Finn stated as if it was the most matter-of-fact thing in the entire world.

“You’re unbelievable.”

Since Finn wanted to do every possible tourist-y thing in New York and Sami didn’t have too many obligations as he recovered, they headed up to Brooklyn a full week early. Sami was quite familiar with the area that they’d be visiting, and had offered to bring him to lesser-known gems and go off the beaten path, but Finn was adamant about sticking to his list from Trip Advisor. Something that Sami had never taken notice of before was the amount of selfies that Finn took, and now Finn needed one in front of every single landmark they stopped by; eventually, he wanted Sami to be in them as well, and the initial soft inquires swiftly became full-blown assumptions that it was OK to grab him and pull him in close to get him in the frame, sometimes even bringing the sides of their faces together. Sami prayed that none of them captured how feverish he felt in the few seconds that it took for the shutter button to be pressed, then wondered if he could get away with quickly planting a peck on Finn’s cheek. As a joke, of course.

After the Brooklyn Bridge, Coney Island, the Statue of Liberty, and sampling a countless amount of authentic Brooklyn bagels, they weighed their options for the next stop. Sami asked if they could skip the zoo, not explicitly stating that it reminded him of Kevin, but also not hiding any ruefulness, and Finn agreed. They settled on the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, so vibrant and lush, and as they sat together on a bench that overlooked a beautiful pond, it was a miracle that Sami didn’t confess everything that he felt right then and there. Not before something as huge as Finn’s upcoming match. Maybe not ever, if he could help it.

The tranquility was interrupted by Finn’s phone ringing, and he glanced at the screen and grimaced. He stood up and Sami heard a solemn “Hey Mum” as Finn walked a few yards away. The conversation was maybe 5 minutes total, and Finn hung his head in the middle of it and rubbed his forehead, while Sami did his best not to eavesdrop. Shortly after, Finn made his way back over to the bench and slumped down, with his head in his hands and in a much more somber mood.

“Finn?” Sami reached out and touched his shoulder.

“Lubo just passed away. My dog died.” Finn’s voice was shaky, and without hesitation Sami threw his arm over Finn’s shoulders and held him.

“I’m sorry, Finn.”

“He was old, we knew that it was going to happen soon, but I couldn’t be there for him...”

“Yeah, but you love him, and he knew that. Dogs are intuitive.”

“Mhm,” was Finn’s muffled response as he pressed his face against Sami’s shirt, which now started to dampen. Sami, in turn, stroked Finn’s hair and let him grieve.

“You wanna go back to the hotel?” Sami finally asked after Finn’s breathing steadied.

“Nah, I like it right here. It’s peaceful. You mind if we stay a while longer?”

“We’ll stay as long as you need to.”


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Then doesn’t he deserve to know how much he matters?”
> 
> “Not in this context, and he certainly doesn’t deserve to be burdened by any of this. ‘Sides, I...y’know, I don’t even know if I’d be any good in a relationship, or if I’m ready for one or anything like that, even if everything could just magically work itself out.”

The few days that lead up to TakeOver were filled with charity events, interviews, and were just a general whirlwind of activity. The roster had just learned that the entire Barclays Center sold out, and it dawned on everyone just how historic this event was going to be. In every interview Sami partook in, he had to answer the same few questions:

No, he didn’t know when he’d be coming back.

Yes, he was excited for how big this was for NXT.

Yes, it hurt that he wasn’t participating.

Between Bayley and Sasha, he wanted Bayley to win, but still supported Sasha.

And finally, between Kevin and Finn, he was rooting for Finn. He’d always follow that one up with all of the reasons that he didn’t want Kevin to win, and never listed why he was on Finn’s side; he was worried if he started with one reason, he would spill out months of repressed feelings to an unsuspecting interviewer, something that became harder by the day to choke down.

The energy and size of the New York crowd was something entirely different than most anyone in NXT had previously experienced, and for as much as Sami desperately wanted to be performing, he was excited to be able to sit ringside and actually see for himself the work the literal blood, sweat, and tears that his co-workers had put into this momentous event. He was so proud to see how everyone reacted to Enzo and Cass, and to even recite their spiel with over 15,000 other people. Apollo Crews couldn’t have had a better place to debut, and his jubilance was infectious. Bayley and Sasha’s match was easily the most emotional one on the card, and Sami was a big enough man to admit that he cried a little bit when one of his best friends finally won the title.

There wasn’t much time to recover between the NXT Women’s title match and when the bassline for Kevin’s music started to reverberate through the stadium, and Sami’s anxiety started to fester. Then everything went dark, and there was fog and faint red lights again, and he realized that he’d never actually seen Balor’s entrance for himself, and the lengths that they went to for TakeOver did not disappoint. The whole display was graceful and feral, and for a few minutes Sami was so caught up in crowd participation that when the music stopped and the NXT title was hoisted high above the ring, he remembered the stipulation of this match and how Finn had never been in a ladder match before, and he wanted to vomit.

Several times during the match did Sami have to keep himself from jumping the barrier and coming to Finn's aid, afraid that Kevin would make good on his words and actually commit murder this evening. Once the two ladders were set up by Kevin to create an insidious construct, Sami could feel his throat starting to physically tear as he hollered expletives; of course, Finn was always so oddly collective under pressure, and more resourceful than anyone could ever give him credit for, and when Kevin went crashing through his own structure, Sami breathed a heavy sigh of relief.

Since Finn's music went on for approximately one eternity, and he was going to ham it up for the entire duration of it, Sami had enough time to sneak out back and meet up with the rest of the roster. Vince McMahon himself was among them, so he stuck to a dark corner and kept quiet, able to watch his bosses congratulate both opponents. It was such a significant moment, and a mix between pride and envy sat in the pit of Sami’s stomach. Finn then took turns shaking hands and happily chatting with everyone present, and Sami took a few steps out of his corner to approach Finn. He didn’t get far when he was overcome by a sudden sense of unimportance in this moment in NXT history and dwelled on the idea that maybe he didn’t actually matter in this company anymore, so he turned around in haste and looked for an exit. Before he could get far, he felt a hard tug on his good arm, enough to generate the momentum to spin him around and have him come face to face with Bayley.

“Dude, where are you going?!” she demanded, and wrapped her arms around Sami so that he couldn’t move.

“Congrats, Bayley. You deserve this, and I’m so unbelievably happy for you right now.” Sami lifted his arms as high above her waist as he could to return the hug.

“Aw, thanks buddy. Did you talk to Finn?”

“No, not yet, I was gonna go get fresh air…” Sami trailed off, but could see in Bayley’s eyes that she knew he was lying.

“‘Scuse me, you two, got room for one more?” came a familiar Irish accent from behind Sami, and Bayley looked over his shoulder with an impossibly wide grin.

“Get in here!” she exclaimed, and Sami felt himself sandwiched in between Bayley, and who he could only guess was Finn; a chin rested on his shoulder, and Sami didn’t even need to turn his head to see the black and red paint. The three of them stayed like that for a few seconds, and Sami closed his eyes as he enjoyed the much-needed sensation of warmth and unconditional love his two best friends provided. Finally, Bayley pulled away and said, “OK guys, I gotta go meet up with Carmella! I’ll see you both around. Congrats again, Finn!”

“Thanks Bayley! You too!” Finn called back, arms that previously hugged both Bayley and Sami now around Sami’s chest and warm breath tickled behind his earlobe. Needing distance of any sort, Sami also pulled away and faced Finn from arm’s length.

“Congratulations.” Sami said with the warmest possible smile, one which Finn returned.

“Told you not to worry,” Finn chided.

“I know, I’m sorry, but that’s all I ever do about anything. Wanna go get something to eat after you clean up?”

“All I wanna do is get back to the hotel room and not move for 24 hours. If you wanna go hit the town, don’t let me hold you back.”

“Nah, too drained from everything that just happened. I can call ahead for a pizza before we leave here and have it delivered to the hotel, if you want. That way it’ll be ready by the time we get there.”

“That sounds perfect. Let me go get washed up and we’ll split.”

Back at the hotel, both men were seated on the same bed as they shared the pizza and Sami thoroughly examined Finn for any deep cuts he sustained. There was nothing so dire that he required stitches, but several areas of his torso and neck that definitely needed antiseptic and bandages.

“Alright, I think I’m done up here. Can you lay down on your stomach so that I can check the back of your legs?” Sami requested, and Finn obliged. There were plenty of faint marks all over Finn’s calves, which had mostly been protected by his footwear and shin guards, but the majority of the cuts were around his upper thighs, and Sami felt guilty for even looking. He soaked a cotton ball in hydrogen peroxide and pressed it against one of the cuts, which earned a hiss from Finn. “Ah, sorry!”

“S’ok, just stings a bit. You’re doing fine.” Finn murmured reassuringly. Sami looked back at the area he was working on and felt his mouth go dry, trying to focus strictly on the wounds and not how muscular Finn’s legs were, how they flexed just a little bit every time the cotton ball made contact with his skin, and how not more than a few inches north was...Sami violently shook his head, thankful to the moon and stars that Finn couldn’t see him right now. After a thorough examination, Sami tossed the used supplies into a nearby trash bin and lightly pat one of Finn’s calves.

“You should be good now,” Sami alerted him, and before he could get up to return to the other bed, Finn looked back at him as though he had something on his mind.

“Hey, would it be odd to ask for a shoulder rub?” Finn asked at last.

“Not at all.” Sami repositioned himself so that he was closer to Finn’s torso and laid his hands on the wide back to the side of him. Finn sighed contentedly as Sami kneaded away at the aching muscles and occasionally arched into the touch. Right then, Sami wondered if the universe was testing him. As he pressed into the lower back, Finn emitted a loud moan and Sami immediately stopped, his entire body temperature now elevated and hands shaky, and Finn laughed nervously.

“Sorry mate, guess you’re really good at that. Didn’t mean to startle you.”

“I...I think my wrist cramped up. Maybe it’s causing too much strain on my shoulder. I should probably stop, I’m really sorry.”

“Do you want me to have a go at you?” Finn offered

“No, I think I’m just gonna lay down, try to get some rest.” Sami had already gotten into his own bed and cocooning himself with the blanket. “Night, Finn.”

“G’night, Sami.”

The most recent prognosis about Sami’s injury was that it would take a month longer to recover than originally thought, which meant possibly being on the sideline for the UK tour. It was funny how 2014 had been so kind to him, and now in 2015 he would be missing NXT’s first overseas tour, including the sold-out Wembley Stadium, which meant so much to Finn. It was physically painful to see all of his friends get better and miss out of this crucial period in their careers, it was like salt in his wounds to see Kevin on RAW and Smackdown every single week, and while Sami was still angry, he knew deep inside that he was heartbroken that they weren’t there together. The only thing that caused more despair than Kevin’s progress was that Sami was now missing out on Finn’s entire career in NXT, as the NXT champion no less, and how the only thing that he had wanted to do for over a year and a half was to have a single match with his best friend. Now there were rumors that Vince wanted to start transitioning Finn to the main roster, and Sami had to face reality that there was a good chance that he’d never have his match, and had even started to convince himself that maybe it was for the best.

Maybe with Finn not around, Sami could bury his desires once and for all, and stop fantasizing late at night about having the courage to confess his feelings and that they would be reciprocated by Finn Fucking Balor, of all people. He hadn’t even allowed himself to think about anything further than just having that discussion, because he knew that if he gave himself any leniency, he’d think about kissing and touching and so many other things that would make him a bigger creep than he already felt when they’d hug or sit close together. Just as Sami thought that he’d finally gotten a better grip on himself and would congratulate himself on having a will of steel, Finn had started slinking out to the ring in a leather jacket and was wearing now wrestling trunks that hugged his hips just a bit tighter, leaving so little to the imagination; it was then that Sami felt as though the universe had betrayed him entirely.

To cheer Sami up after seeing the life getting sucked out of him over the past year, Bayley had declared a day in early October to be ‘Sami Zayn Day’, where just the two of them would engage in all Sami Zayn related activities. Since it was a random weekday, there were able to hit up a local skate park that was vacant during school hours. Per Bayley’s request, Sami taught her the basics of how to skate, and after she had fallen over for a fourth time, they opted to take a break. The rest of their day was mostly low-key: they drove to Tampa, had lunch by the beach and went swimming for a few hours, then returned to Orlando and cleaned up in anticipation of a concert that evening. Bayley was only familiar with one or two songs of the band that they were seeing, and Sami warned her that they were a little weird, but she countered that tonight was about him and that if she could enjoy a song called “Gay Bar”, she could probably enjoy their other stuff as well; as it turned out, she absolutely did get into the music, and moshed with the rest of the bros there while Sami stuck close to the bar to avoid any possibility of re-injury from being too enthusiastic about life yet again.

After the encore, Bayley and Sami departed and wandered around the quiet streets of Orlando, and for a while Bayley chattered on and one about how good the show was and how they needed to see them again when they came back. Overall, Sami was just content that Bayley had fun and that he didn’t waste her time. Then, the inevitable struck.

“How’re you feeling?” Bayley asked, and Sami knew that her question was actually not one, but several.

“Much better after today, thanks for getting me out of the house.” Sami hoped that would have been sufficient.

“How’s the arm after everything we did today?”

“It’s feeling fine. I have an appointment tomorrow to see if they’ll clear me to start training again, so I’m excited about that but I’m also dreading it because with my luck lately, they’ll have to amputate my arm or something.”

There was a pause, and Sami could feel in his very bones what was coming next.

“Have you talked to Finn yet?”

“No.”

“Are you going to?”

“Probably not. I don’t have a reason to.”

Bayley moved in front of Sami to stop him from going further and placed her hands on his forearms so that he couldn’t avoid her.

“Sami...”

“Bayley, it’s fine. I’m fine.”

“Are you?”

“Yes. Look, Finn’s my best friend. His friendship is a gift, the greatest gift that I’ll ever get and that I probably don’t deserve but I can’t afford to lose, either. Being around him is like this natural high and he turns me on and makes me giddy, and honestly I’m so beyond infatuation at this point. But I’ve come to terms that I’m perfectly fine with living as friends and I’m getting better at handling myself because...he matters. He matters so much.”

“Then doesn’t he deserve to know how much he matters?”

“Not in this context, and he certainly doesn’t deserve to be burdened by any of this. ‘Sides, I...y’know, I don’t even know if I’d be any good in a relationship, or if I’m ready for one or anything like that, even if everything could just magically work itself out.”

Bayley sighed in defeat and let Sami go, and he reached a hand up and tousled her already unkempt post-concert hair.

“You’re a good friend, Bayley. Thank you for looking out for me and listening.”

“You too, Sami.”

The remainder of their walk together was in silence.

WWE’s recent partnership with Dragon Gate should have put Sami over the moon, but sitting around and being unable to actually wrestle had dampened his spirits and kept him from volunteering to assist, afraid that if he drew attention to himself that they’d remember he existed in the company and release him from his contract. That very paranoia had eaten away at him on one particular day at the Performance Center, after he had received a phone call from Triple H earlier that morning requesting that he stick around for after his training so that they could talk. Sami had always wondered if the physical therapist was keeping something from him, and maybe today he’d find out.

“Sami Zayn!” Hunter exclaimed when Sami knocked on his office’s door. “Come in, get comfortable. Do you want something to drink? How’s training going?”

“Hiya, Hunter.” Sami took a seat. “I’m all set on the drink. I think training’s going well, I feel good. I’m really excited to get back in front of the camera, though.”

“I’m excited for you to get back in front of the camera, I miss having you there. We all do. Until then, I have a favor to ask of you.”

“Oh, sure. What’s up?”

“I want you to go to Evolve as the WWE representative, basically an ambassador for us. Would that be alright with you? It’s coming up pretty soon.”

“Al-alright? Hunter, are you serious right now?!”

“Of course I am.”

“Wouldn’t you want Finn to go? He’s the NXT champion right now, he has more weight than I do.”

“Yeah, but you have history with Dragon Gate, and you have history with all of those guys. You’re one of them. They’ll listen to you before they’ll listen to anyone else.”

“I’m honored, Hunter, I’m just…”

“You’re worried.”

“Yeah.”

“Because of your injury.”

“Yup.”

“Sami, do you think that you’re the first person to ever get an injury?”

“No, of course not.”

“Then you’ve gotta know that you’re not the first person that’s ever been worried that they were going to get shelved and stay there. That’s what’s going through your mind, isn’t it?”

“It is. Wow that’s...really creepy that you just did that. No disrespect.” Sami sighed, and felt as though his boss’ eyes were piercing into his brain. “Hunter, I missed Brooklyn. I might be missing the UK tour, and I’m worried that I’m not relevant anymore. Also, they took me off of the title sequence a little while ago, so that stung.”

“You’ll be back on in no time, they had to do that so we weren’t getting into false advertisement territory.” Hunter then snorted, but his face softened. “You really get it though, huh?”

“Well, if you’re asking, then probably not.”

“You’re literally what everyone thinks of when someone mentions NXT. You’re the face of NXT. You’re the reason that we got guys like Itami and Balor, Owens and Joe. I think whether you want it or not, you’re our ambassador regardless. So what do you say?”

“I say that I’m flattered, and had no idea that you thought so highly of me. And that I’ll be happy to go to Evolve for you. For us.”


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 'For the past few months, Sami had tried to convince himself that he didn’t need a romantic relationship with Finn, but now it didn’t feel like a lie. Their relationship was supportive and fun, it was healthy and kind, and there wasn’t a need to complicate something that worked so well. Maybe eventually Sami’s heart would catch up with his brain altogether, and everything about Finn wouldn’t send it into a frenzy. Or maybe Sami would feel this way forever. Either way, those emotions were not longer a threat to be his undoing.'

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The topic of consent comes up at the end of this chapter. I'm not tagging it because nothing actually happens, but the context may make some people uncomfortable so I wanted to include this warning.

Sami’s weekend to Long Island had been refreshing. Even though he only had a 5 minute segment during Evolution where he emotionally addressed the audience and hyped up Johnny Gargano, they cheered “Olé Olé Olé Olé” the entire time and applauded him, happy to still welcome him into their world. He stuck around for a long while after the show had ended, mingling with the crowd and former co-workers and was reminded of why he had traded his entire life for this industry.

Being without Finn for a few days also helped him put things into perspective, and while there was no doubt that he missed him, it wasn’t in an amorous manner. It was the mostly minor things, like waiting in line at a coffee shop and not weighing their order options together, or seeing a random dog and not having the other to point it out to, or taking a phone call and not having the other person making faces at them the entire time.

Or sitting alone in a hotel room on a rainy day, instead of together.

For the past few months, Sami had tried to convince himself that he didn’t need a romantic relationship with Finn, but now it didn’t feel like a lie. Their relationship was supportive and fun, it was healthy and kind, and there wasn’t a need to complicate something that worked so well. Maybe eventually Sami’s heart would catch up with his brain altogether, and everything about Finn wouldn’t send it into a frenzy. Or maybe Sami would feel this way forever. Either way, those emotions were not longer a threat to be his undoing.

Bayley had offered a few more times to talk to Finn, and Sami kept his cool, aware that she just wanted the best for everyone; had it been anyone else, he might have lost his patience by now, and it sort of reminded him of how fruitless it was when his mom would try to set him up with young women that she knew if her social circle. Still, there was something about Bayley’s personality that totally made sense that she’d want to play matchmaker, and he suspected that if she had just “happened” to come across any new tidbits of information, like the stars aligning so that Finn would suddenly confess to her that he really wanted to kiss Sami, she would have dropped some kind of hint about it. And maybe then he’d ask her to talk to him.

As things started to look up and Sami finally started to feel more emotionally secure about himself, the best possible news arrived in late November: he was cleared to get in the ring for Wembley. The physical therapist repeated herself several times since Sami was in utter disbelief, and when it finally sunk in, he hugged her and went around the Performance Center and hugged everyone there, even Baron Corbin, who surprisingly did not want a hug. The only person not present was Finn, who had left for the UK several days before to do promotional work for the tour and to spend some rare time with his family. Sami stepped outside, pulled his phone out, and pressed on Finn’s contact.

“Hey Sami!” Finn cheerfully greeted from the other end of the line.

“Finn, is this a bad time?” Sami inquired as he tried to calculate the time zone difference

“No way! What’s up? Yah miss me?”

“What? Yeah, I guess, but that’s not why I’m calling. I’m cleared! I can go on the tour!”

“That’s fantastic, mate! I’m so happy for you! Hey, while I’ve got you on the line, I’ve gotta question for you that I was gonna talk to you about later.”

“Oh yeah, what’s up?”

“Do you wanna come out here a little early? Like stay over my house. There’re some great gyms in the area, so you’ll get your training in, but I figured I could show you around my old stomping grounds and whatnot.”

“Whoa, are you sure? I mean like...I don’t want to take time out of your schedule.”

“Nah, are you kidding me, it’s all NXT stuff anyway, people’re gonna want Sami Zayn to be a part of that.” There was a pause. “And...you’re my best friend, and I don’t know if we’ll have the option to do something like this again, y’know? It’d mean a lot to me if you’d accept.”

“Of course. When would you want me to head out?”

“As soon as y’can, I guess. Just pack your bags, let me know when your flight is, and I’ll pick you up from the airport.”

“Oh, OK. Sure, I’ll get home and look at flights and I’ll tell you as soon as I book one.”

“Great. By the way, Sami?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you like hiking at all? Have you ever gone mountain climbing?”

“It’s been a while, but I could still do it I think. Maybe not a huge mountain. I’d need some gear, too.”

“I wasn’t thinking a big one. And we’ll pick some up when you’re here.”

“Great. Talk to you soon. Bye Finn.”

“Bye Sami.”

Sami didn’t even think twice about what just happened, like it was normal to impulsively get on a 12 hour flight to another country, but Hunter gave him his blessing to leave early, and that evening he packed his suitcase and passport, took a taxi to the Orlando International Airport, and boarded an Aer Lingus plane. Since most of the flight was at night, he pulled out his neck pillow, laid back, and fell asleep for several hours. Of course, nothing good can last and he eventually woke up with 3 hours left on the flight, which were completely unbearable. No movie could hold his attention, no music album worth listening all the way through, and he could barely read the words in Daniel Bryan’s memoir, which he was hoping that he would finally have the attention span to finally get through it. Not when Finn was so close, though.

Once the flight landed, Sami couldn’t get off of the plane fast enough. He had only packed a carry-on so that he wouldn’t have to wait in the baggage claim, and made a dash for the lobby, scanning everywhere for Finn.

“SAMI!” came a loud yell from his side, and before he could react he was lifted up into the air and held there for a few seconds.

“Hi, Finn!” Sami laughed, dropped his bag, and wrapped his arms around Finn’s shoulders.

“I could suplex you right now if I wanted.” Finn stated with a grin.

“I would appreciate it if you didn’t, though.”

“You know,” Finn started and he put Sami down. “I’ve never been able to pick you up like that, ‘cause you were injured and all.”

“I didn’t realize that it was a concern.” Sami responded as he retrieved his bag.

“An observation.” Finn corrected him.

“An observation about picking me up?”

“Well, in case I needed to lift you up in a celebratory manner. Or suplex you across the airport lobby.”

“Yeah but don’t.”

“OK, fine.” As they walked in the direction of the exits, Sami felt a hand on the small of his back which guided towards a door to their immediate right. “I’m parked out this way, Sami.”

Sami popped his bag in the back seat of the car, climbed into the passenger side seat, and listened to Finn rattle off ideas regarding what they could go go for their next week and a half together. He tried to recall if he had ever Finn talk so much in such a short period of time, but came up blank.

“Sami? Are y’with me there?”

“Hm? Oh, sorry, I must’ve zoned out.”

“That’s fine, you had a long flight. You wanna head back to my house? We don’t have to do anything for the day, you can just rest if you’d like.”

“I think I just need a bit of time to adjust, that’s all.”

Finn mostly stuck to the coast for the drive, and Sami realized his fortune that the weather was so fair in Ireland when it was so close to the winter. They turned off of the main road and onto what appeared to be a windy dirt path that seemed to stretch on forever, until the car came to the top of a hill and suddenly they could see the ocean for miles and mountains in the distance. When they approached a modest cottage, Finn shifted the car into park and stopped the engine.

“Is this where you live?!” Sami exclaimed, captivated by the view. He moved to the edge of the short cliff in front of them and watched the waves crash on the beach below it.

“Yeah, this is my house.” Finn replied as he held Sami’s bag. “You wanna come inside for a bit and settle in?”

“I could probably use a shower. You think after that...this probably sounds lame, but can we just stick around here for a while? I just want to look around, drink it all in.”

“You’re my guest, we’ll do whatever you like. ‘Sides, a walk on the beach sounds lovely right now.”

Sami followed Finn inside, and couldn’t handle how charming the interior was. It was tidy and had the same Finn decoration flair, with collectible items occupying various corners and surfaces and soccer memorabilia hung up, but it had exposed wooden beams running across the ceilings and walls and a breathtaking view of their surroundings.

“This is beautiful, Finn.”

“I quite miss it from time to time.” Finn admitted. “By the way, shower’s at the top of the stairs, when you’re ready for it. I’m gonna put the kettle on for tea, you want some?”

“That’d be great. Thanks, by the way.”

“For what?”

“Everything. All of this. I dunno, being my friend?”

“You’re very welcome. Thank you for coming out here.”

Had it been a random hotel, Sami would have stayed under the hot water for twenty minutes without hesitation, but since this was Finn’s house he made it quick. Now cleansed of the grime of the airport, he toweled off and remembered that his bag full of clean clothing was still downstairs.

“Hey Finn?” Sami called out as he cracked the door open.

“Yeah?” Finn called back from downstairs.

“Can you bring my bag up here?”

“Already did, it’s in your room. First door on the right.”

“Oh. Thanks dude!”

Towel firmly wrapped around his waist, Sami gathered up his worn clothing followed Finn’s directions to the guest room. It was clean with a writing desk against the wall and an assortment of pencils and paints on top of that. He pulled out a pair of jeans, a plain black t-shirt, a hoodie, and a scarf that he loved but never was able to wear in Florida’s heat; after his outfit was completed with his cap, he went back downstairs to meet up with Finn for tea.

“You look dapper there,” Finn remarked as Sami took a seat next to him.

“Nah, this is how I’d dress back in Canada. It’s nothing noteworthy. But thanks.”

Silence had once been something that made Sami uncomfortable, but he found himself so in tune with Finn that there didn’t always need to be conversation had between the two of them. Not talking also gave him a chance to observe certain mannerisms, his favorite being the way that Finn would idylly trace the rim of his mug with a finger when he wasn’t drinking out of it, and Sami liked to imagine that his fingertips tasted savory and sweet like the beverage that laced them. While he was absolutely resolute in not letting his emotions interfere with their friendship, he couldn’t stop himself from daydreaming altogether; at least it didn’t hurt to do so anymore.

“Ready?” Finn asked when Sami put his mug down, which was a surprise because he didn’t know when he had finished the contents.

“Sure. Let’s go.”

The temperature had cooled, but the skies were clear and the ocean was calm. They climbed down a narrow rock staircase that led to the beach and strolled along the shore, and aside the caw of a few gulls they were alone. To the left and across a cove was a small town, and to the right was a mountain range.

“So which one are we climbing?”

“I was thinking the Little Sugar Loaf. It’s only a two hour climb and the view is fantastic. We can get your gear tomorrow and try to get to it the day after that.”

“Awesome.”

In an effort to soak in as much of the serenity as possible, Sami took a seat on a large rock that jutted out from the sand, and Finn joined him. A light wind picked up and knocked parts of Sami’s scarf into Finn’s face, and Finn in return laughed and pinned it down to Sami’s arm with his hand. The salty air was so clean, so invigorating, and it was the most at peace that Sami felt in his entire life. If he could be granted one moment in time to exist in for eternity, it would be this one.

The next morning, they drove into town and stopped at a backpacking shop, and Sami was outfitted for a pair of boots and an appropriate pair of pants, along with several accessories that the clerks had convinced him that he absolutely needed to have for the trip. He wore the boots out to break them in and they ventured all over town, Finn showing him places that he had spent growing up and where the best places to eat were and what had and hadn’t changed in Bray. In the evening, Finn had gotten a phone call from his sister, and the two chatted for several minutes before he raised his eyebrows and looked over at Sami.

“So I know that you don’t drink, but my sister was wondering if we’d like to join her and my brothers at the bar for a reunion.”

“Of course we will! How often do you get to see your family now? But are you sure that you want me around? I mean, isn’t this a family thing?”

“Yes, we want you there. I want you there.”

“Well, then let’s get going. I’ll be the designated driver tonight.”

The tavern that they met up with Finn’s sister and his three brothers was possibly the most Irish thing Sami could fathom: the lighting was low and warm, the patrons cheerful and welcoming, and everyone seemed to know everyone else. A server brought over five tall glass mugs full of beer, as well as a pitcher of water and a glass for Sami. It wasn’t long before the beer needed replenishing again. And again. Finn and Sami were seated next to one another, but it was Finn’s sister that Sami spent a lot of his time conversing with, and she asked questions and remarked that she felt as though she already knew him, as Finn had already told her so much beforehand.

As the evening carried on, Finn progressively got more tenacious. At first Sami thought that is was his imagination, maybe the atmosphere made his brain a little hazy, but it started with Finn throwing his arm around his shoulders and telling present company what a good guy Sami was but the arm stayed there for quite some time, and when it finally dropped the contact didn’t. The arm transitioned to a hand on Sami’s lower back, and later their knees brushed together several times, but eventually the entire side of Finn’s leg pressed against Sami’s. Not long after that did Sami feel an ankle hook around his own.

“Finn,” Sami whispered. “I don’t want to take you away from time with your siblings, but maybe you’ve had enough for tonight.”

Finn looked over at Sami with a look that he couldn’t read, a look that he had never seen Finn give before in their time together; it was cocky and goofy and Sami fully expected to get a load of sass in response.

“You’re prolly right, Saaami.” Finn’s accent was so thick, and Sami tried to ignore the emphasis on the ‘a’. “Maybe we should get going then, yeah? Back to the house.”

“We don’t have to leave, I just think that you need to take it easy, that’s all.”

“Nah, I’m getting tired. We should go.”

Sami tried to protest again, but Finn had stood up and had a grip on Sami’s arm, pulling him along as well. The good-byes were emotional, with hugs and pats on the back, which Finn’s siblings not only doled out for Finn, but for Sami as well. Before both groups parted ways, Finn and his sister whispered something to one another, and he nodded at something that she told him.

Back at the car, Finn rested his head on Sami’s arm the entire drive back, and Sami reminded him that his seat probably reclined and that he may be more comfortable that way, but Finn declined and said that he was lightheaded and didn’t want to lay backwards yet. Sami found their way back via Finn’s slurred instructions, almost missing the turn onto the dirt path. Getting out of the car and into the cottage was an adventure, and Sami kept Finn steady and finally got him onto the couch, where he collapsed.

“It’s too hot,” Finn whined as he peeled his shirt off, like he always did at home, and Sami sat next to him and offered a glass of water that he had prepared in the kitchen. “Look at you, best friend. Always takin’ care of my sorry arse.”

“Are you gonna be OK? Maybe you should try to get a little sober before you go to sleep. I can stay up with you, I don’t mind.”

Finn sat up to take a sip of the water, then laid back down on the couch and positioned himself to that his face rested on Sami’s leg. “Such a gent. Such a lovely, wonderful gent.”

“No, I just...want you to be safe. I think anyone would in this position, right?”

“You’re the only one in this position, though.”

“What’s what supposed mean?”

“Sami.” Finn rolled over so that the he was now looking up at Sami. “Is it true that you fancy me?”

“HUH?!” Sami didn’t mean to sound so shrill, but he was caught off guard and now he could feel tremors that he couldn’t control. “Wh-what...who gave you that idea?”

Finn had now sat up, pulled himself into a kneeling position and stared at Sami, the expression from earlier at the bar resurfacing. “A little birdie might’ve mentioned something.”

“Bayley?” Sami’s voice started to crack, his heart in his throat and lungs somewhere in his stomach, where oxygen was less accessible.

“Mhm. So is it true, then?” Finn had inched closer, and Sami wondered if he could press himself far enough into the couch that he’d disappear.

“I-I don’t want to have this conversation right now, Finn.” Or ever.

“Why not? Y’know maybe we don’t have to talk at all, if you don’t want.” An arm draped against the back of the couch, a hand curled around the back of Sami’s head, and Finn's face was now so close that Sami could smell the alcohol on his breath.

“No, no. No, Finn, I don’t...we can’t. What do you think, that I’m gonna take advantage of you like this? Please, go to bed.”

The other hand slid up Sami’s thigh as Finn whispered in a husky voice, eyes completely locked. “What if I wanted you to take advantage of me?”

“NO!” Sami shouted, and Finn froze, eyes widened. “You can’t fucking consent right now! You can’t...you’re drunk, and you’re suggesting that I...Finn. Finn, you’re my best friend and I’m so in love with you that it’s physically painful sometimes, almost all the time, and now you’re asking that I...I...I fucking can’t be here.”

“Sami, that wasn’t-” Finn was cut off as Sami pushed him away and made his way out the door.


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Sometimes I forget how intense you are.”
> 
> “All or nothing, Sami. Life’s too short for anything in between.”

Outside, the stars shined brightly and the moon hung over the ocean as the waves steadily rocked back and forth and crashed onto the beach below. Sami stumbled into the tranquil setting, eyes stinging and struggling to fill his lungs with fresh air, and then dropped to his knees on the front lawn. He wished that he could enjoy the spectacle of nature in front of him, but he was too heartbroken and too cold to care. Maybe he could walk back to town and check into an inn. Or maybe if he stayed outside long enough, he'd freeze to death and then none of this would be an issue anymore.

As Sami contemplated his next course of action, or current lack thereof, his phone started to vibrate. Surprised that he had service out here but unable to form coherent thoughts, nevermind sentences, he let it go to voicemail. He ignored it when it rang for a second time, but after the third time the concern for whoever was calling outweighed his concern for himself and finally glanced at the caller ID screen. A few directed expletives were directed at the heavens above, and he unlocked the screen.

"Now's not a good time, Bayley." Sami tried to keep his voice even.

"Finn just called me, he sounded really upset. Are you guys OK?"

"Why did you tell him? Why-"

"Sami, it wasn't like tha-"

"-after I asked you over and over not to tell him."

"No, Sami-"

"After I trusted you." There was a pause. "Bayley, I trusted you."

"Because he told me how he felt about you."

"That doesn't make it OK!"

"And I never told him! Can you just calm down for one whole minute and listen to me?"

"Did you just ask someone with anxiety to calm down?"

"Dammit, I did. I'm sorry. Can you take a few deep breaths please and focus on something where you are?"

"Yeah, OK." Sami followed Bayley's advice, inhaled heavily, and stared at a lone tree that overlooked the cliff and swayed gently in the breeze.

"Are you doing a little better?"

"Yeah."

"Is it OK for me to talk now?"

"I think so."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"Great. A few months ago Finn started dropping some pretty heavy hints. It started when he and I were out with Carmella, Enzo, and Cass. Carmella pointed out some cute girl at a record shop that we stopped into; she was in a rockabilly getup, like a checkerboard dress and stuff and was thumbing through some punk vinyls, and Carmella said something like ‘oh my GAWD there’s Sami’s dream girl!’.”

Sami laughed. “Hold on, do that again.”

“What? ‘Oh my GAAAAWD’?”

“That is so spot on that it’s kind of scary.”

“Carmella and I hang out all the time. More than you and I do even, I think. Anyway, it was a benign comment, and everyone got a good laugh out of it. Except Finn, he just kind of chuckled and got distracted by the hip-hop section. But then at lunch the topic came back up, about what the perfect girl for you would be like, and whether or not you dated or were looking for a girlfriend or if you’d be interested in one.”

“Oh god.”

“Yeah. Apparently Enzo has some lady friends, y’know, in case you ever wanted to pursue that avenue. Anyway, I mentioned that you don’t really date, and Enzo said something like ‘a stud like that don’t date?!’.”

“You ever consider doing impersonations for a living?”

“Maybe if wrestling doesn’t pan out. But Finn was really quiet the whole time. After lunch, he and I took off together, and when we were driving around he asked if I was being serious when I said that you didn’t date, and I said yes, and gave the reason that you kind of have a harder time than most people getting attracted to someone.”

“Oh. That’s not inaccurate, I guess? I sound less defective when you put it that way.”

“Sami, you’re not defective. You’re...iunno. If you look at things in black or white, gay or straight, then sure, you’re weird in that context. But most stuff in reality exists in a grey area, which includes stuff like sex and sexuality and relationships. There’s no real wrong way to exist when it’s a spectrum that you’re dealing with and not a barometer.”

“I...I’ve never thought of it that way before. Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it. So Finn asked if I knew what type of person you’d be attracted to, if having similar interests helped...it was like he was trying to size up an opponent, he was so serious! I told him that I didn’t know. He got really quiet after that. We finally pulled up to his place, and we sat in the car for a little while without talking, before he finally asked in what must have been THE most dejected voice that I’ve ever heard, ‘Do you think I’d ever be good enough?’.”

It felt like whatever of Sami’s heart remained in tact shattered and splintered off into the pit of his stomach. “What did you tell him?”

“I told him that I thought that realistically he was too good for anyone, but I don’t think that was the answer that he was looking for. And then over the next few weeks he started opening up about it more, and we’d be out and he’d absently point out things that he thought you’d like or reminded him of you, or we’d go and get coffee and he’d tell me what your usual drink order...just stuff like that. Eventually, he asked me if I thought that he should talk to you about it, and I told him that at the very least you’d be flattered, but warned him that you might not be interested in a relationship anytime soon, because that’s what you told me. So he said that he’d wait until he had the right opportunity, maybe try to show you what he could offer as a partner before bringing it up, but not push you into anything, either.”

“So he was able to assume from that, huh?”

“Hey, I didn’t tell him anything, but I also really suck at lying. Or keeping a poker face. And Finn’s built his career off of reading people and being able to act upon what they’re not telling him.”

“That’s fair. I’m sorry for getting upset at you.”

“I’m sorry for not telling you any of this sooner, but I didn’t want to ruin his moment.”

“No, don’t be. I just...I don’t know what to do right now.”

“Yeah, what happened? I could barely make out what he was saying, he was really upset.”

“He drank way too much and came on to me pretty hard. He suggested that we do stuff when he’s under the influence, barely able to stand, and that it was OK if I wanted to ‘take advantage of him’ or whatever. I freaked out and left the house.” Sami paused and groaned. “I also told him that I’m in love with him. Fuck me.”

“Oh geez, that’s not OK. Are you still near the house?”

“I didn’t get far. I’m right outside of it, and he’s inside.”

“Well look, what he did wasn’t cool, and you’re allowed to be upset. You should probably talk about it first thing when he’s sober and let him know that stuff like that isn’t going to fly. That being said, right now, your best friend is scared and sad and intoxicated, and he honestly probably didn’t mean to make you feel like this or hurt you. Maybe you should go inside and make sure that he’s OK?”

“Yeah, probably.”

“I mean, you don’t have to! You can stay outside all night if you really wanted to, that’s your call.”

“No, I was gonna do it anyway. I’ll hate myself forever if I don’t.”

“Call me if you need to talk some more. I’ll be around.”

“Thanks Bayley.”

Now back inside, everything was dark and quiet, and the couch was vacant. Sami tread lightly, turning corners and trying to find where Finn could have disappeared to, and wondered if he had gone to bed. He started to ascend the staircase, and could hear running water coming from somewhere upstairs as he got closer to the top. The bathroom was empty, so Sami walked past the guest room and towards Finn’s, and from under the doorway he could see a faint light. Cautiously, he opened the bedroom door, and could see Finn in the bathroom of the master bedroom, upper body slumped over the toilet.

“Finn?” Sami approached the bathroom, and waited in the doorway as he watched Finn’s body heave and shake.

“‘M sorry.” Finn whispered without looking up, his throat hoarse. “I’m a lousy friend.”

Slowly, Sami moved over to Finn’s side, and could see that his face and chest were damp, and eyes were completely bloodshot. He eyed the Dixie cups on the counter and grabbed one.

“You think you’re done?”

Finn nodded, not bothering to lift his head and higher than the lid of the seat, and Sami pressed on the handle to dispel the nauseating contents of the bowl. “Sami, I’m so sorry.”

“C’mon, let’s not do this right now. Let’s get you hydrated and off to bed, OK?”

“I didn’t-”

“Drink this.” Sami handed a paper cup full of water to Finn, and turned the faucet off. Several gulps full of water later, Finn looked up at Sami with an expression that threatened to make him crumble right there.

“Sami, I’m sorry. I’m sorry about all of this. I’m sorry about what I said and did, I’m…” Finn couldn’t finish his sentence, his entire body wracked with sobs, and Sami’s apprehension about getting any closer dissolved as he sat on the floor next to Finn and held onto him. Initially, Finn tried to push him away, and Sami loosened his grip a little bit.

“I’ll let go if you want me to.” Sami offered.

“I don’t deserve anything about you.”

“Shh...let’s not do this right now. Let’s get you to bed, we’ll deal with this in the morning.”

“Do you hate me?”

“No. God no. That’s...that’s not even physically possible. I’m disappointed, maybe sad, but I don’t hate you. Is that what you thought?”

“...yeah.”

“Aw, Finn. No. You did something REALLY dumb, but it’ll take a lot more than that to impact how I feel about you. Now do you want to stay on the floor forever or can we start migrating you to your bed?”

“I guess. Help me up?”

“Yup.” Sami threw Finn’s arm over his shoulder, put his own arm around his waist for support, and lifted them both off of the floor. The journey to Finn’s bed was mercifully short, and Sami laid him down on top of the covers. “Are you going to be fine by yourself? I don’t want you going out ala Hendrix.”

“I’ll be fine. Thanks for the lift.”

“You got it. I’ll be in the next room, yell if you need anything.”

Prior to leaving the room, Sami paused and looked down at Finn to make sure that at least he didn’t seem like he wouldn’t vomit in his sleep, and their eyes met. Finn opened his mouth as if to say something, but Sami leaned down and gingerly kissed his forehead before any words were uttered; the gaze that he received in response was one of pure adulation, something that Sami wasn’t used to and made his heart thunder so hard that he thought he was on the verge of cardiac arrest.

“Sleep well, Finn.”

“You too, Sami.”

The next morning was foggy and misty, and it was as though there was a hush over the Emerald Isle. Sami had woken up before Finn, which was unusual, and busied himself in the kitchen with preparing coffee and breakfast. After twenty minutes had passed, Finn had descended the staircase, groggy and possibly a little hung over, and unsurprisingly without pants on.

“Coffee?” Sami asked, and Finn nodded as he took a seat at the kitchen table. A mug was placed in front of him, and he took a few sips. “How’re you feeling?”

“A tad rough, but I’ll make it.” His voice was still a bit raspy from the night before.

“You still gonna be up for mountain climbing?”

“Definitely. The fresh air’ll clear me up.”

Their destination was a short distance away, but they still opted to drive over to save their energy for the mountain itself. The climb to the summit was not a strenuous one, and there were plenty of man-made trails that assisted in the process, but Sami hadn’t gone hiking in so long that he had to take a few more breaks along the way than he would have liked to, and Finn patiently waited for him to recover each time before they continued on their way.

For the most part, their trip was quiet, with the occasional interruption of one pointing out herds of deer to the other, or a waterfall, or anything else of interest. Considering what transpired the night before, Sami wasn’t eager to converse about much of anything until they were off of the mountain and somewhere less peaceful. He didn’t want to bring up something so unpleasant at a place that he knew meant so much to Finn.

Three hours later and they had finally made it to the summit, and as luck would have it, the sun had just started to peek through the clouds and shone down on the valleys below them. Sami stood over on a ledge and could see the ocean, Bray, and various other villages that dotted the coast, and although he knew that these places were vibrant and full of life, everything seemed still from so high up. He didn’t even notice when Finn had joined him to observe their surroundings until there was a light tap on his wrist to get his attention.

“I can see why you love this.” Sami remarked, and he could feel himself being watched, fingers still on his wrist. There was another moment of silence, before Finn cleared his throat.

“You know, there’s a saying that alcohol’s truth serum…” Finn started.

“I wouldn’t know,” Sami replied flatly.

“Right. Sami, I screwed up last night. I...wanted you to come out here and see this. All of this. I wanted you to meet my family. I wanted to bring you up here and...I had this whole thing planned out. Instead I was a coward. I drank. I didn’t think I could talk to you, I was so scared. I thought that the beer’d make me brave, and maybe if I just...was drunk, we could laugh it off if I said anything foolish. If you didn’t…”

“Finn.”

“Are you really in love with me?”

“You remember that part, huh?”

“I do.”

“I...I think I am. Yeah.”

“Then...is it true that you’re not interested in a relationship?”

“I don’t know yet. I guess...I’m not interested in dating? I’ve thought about it, and I’d like the option to share something with someone that doesn’t take a lot of effort, that feels comfortable, like home. That sounds cheesy, doesn’t it?”

“NO. No, not at all. I...would you maybe...consider me...for that role?”

“Oh my god, your face is so red.”

“It’s probably from the wind and cold…”

“No, I don’t think so.” Sami grinned, and Finn squirmed a little bit.

“Sami.”

“I...I haven’t really done this in a long time. Is it OK if we sort of take it a little slow, at least at first?”

“That makes two of us. We can go at whatever pace you need to, though.”

“OK.”

“OK?”

Sami looked down at Finn’s fingers, still on his wrist, and moved his hand up so that they were now entwined together.

“Yeah.”

Finn moved in closer, his adam’s apple bobbing up and down and eyes so impossibly wide, with the same expression that he had given last night, the one of adoration that made Sami’s head spin and heart crash. “Is...is it fine with you if...if we…”

Sami brought his face within millimeters of Finn’s, their lips now so close to one another that Sami could taste the mint from the toothpaste that Finn had used just before they left the house. “Please. Yes.”

A single kiss turned into several, and Sami was ready to protest when Finn released his hands, but as he felt arms wrap around his waist he understood and followed suit. Together they stood high above the world and clung tightly to one another, Sami’s head now resting in the crook of Finn’s neck and Finn planting kisses on the side of his face. Had it not been for the gusts of wind getting progressively stronger, their stay on the summit would have lasted much longer, but Finn started to pull away and had to raise his voice to tell Sami that they should probably get going. Sami took one last long look at the scenery, captivated by the view, and then by Finn’s efforts.

“You know,” Sami started as they began their descent. “People go through the trouble of pulling something special like this off to propose to someone, and you did it just to tell me how you feel about me.”

“You ARE special, Sami. I needed to do something as grand as this, because anything less wouldn’t have been sufficient.” Finn responded so matter-of-factly, as though it was the most obvious thing that a human being could reason. Before Finn got any further, Sami grabbed his arm to regain his attention.

"I love you."

Finn smiled widely. "I love you too, Sami."

"I don't know what I'm doing or what we're doing or how this all works. Please be patient with me, though. I feel like I didn't earn this, and I still don't know how to process any of it."

"We'll go at your pace, one centimeter at a time if we must. We don't have to have it all figured out instantly, we've got a journey ahead of us and we'll learn along the way. Together."

“Can we establish at least one thing right now?”

“What’s that?”

“Can last night never happen again?”

“Sami Zayn,” Finn grabbed both of his hands and squeezed them, all traces of the previous grin gone. “I swear that I will never again put you in that position, and I hope that you can find it in your heart to forgive me for my thoughtless actions that caused you so much discomfort and grief.”

“That’s...wow. All you needed to say was ‘sure’.”

“I brought you to a fuckin’ mountain to tell you that I love you; ‘sure’ isn’t gonna cut it when I’ve done something hurtful.”

“Sometimes I forget how intense you are.”

“All or nothing, Sami. Life’s too short for anything in between.”

Once they got back to the car, Finn took over driving duties, as Sami’s legs were far less conditioned and now so achy that he could hardly move them. Finn rested his forearm on the center console, hand dangling off the the edge of it, and after a solid minute of staring at it longingly, Sami realized that it was now perfectly fine for him to act on his desire to lace their fingers together and earned a smile from Finn when he finally did. As they drove back to the cottage, the radio played an older indie rock song that felt warm and oddly nostalgic.

_While our blood's still young_  
_It's so young, it runs_  
_Won't stop 'til it's over  
_ _Won't stop to surrender_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you SO much for reading this! I wrote this as a self-indulgent tale to fulfill something that I wanted to see in fiction, and I literally have not written anything in over 10 years, but you've all been so kind and have had the nicest things to say. To anyone interested, this story WILL continue under the name Reckless Abandon, which will be an explicit work but also one that explores healthy, supportive sexual identification, and if that doesn't make you uncomfortable then I hope you'll enjoy it!


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